Andrey Kiritchenko
True Delusion
Nexsound

It's always exciting to receive letters/small packets from the Ukraine. Big brown envelopes. Huge stamps. I think Eastern block governmental issues right away, from out of the foggy past. Before everything totally turned over and changed. Walls turned down, borders opened. And finally the velvety 'orange' revolution of last year comes to mind.

Situated in the south-eastern part of Central Europe Ukraine borders Russia, Belorussia, Moldova, Slovakia, Rumania, Hungary and Poland on land, as well as to Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Roumania and Turkey via the Black Sea. The land are mostly a treeless plain, a 'steppe'. Then there's the Crimean peninsula down south by the Black Sea. Then you've got the Carpathian mountains in the west. The main Ukrainian river is the Dnieper (one of the longest rivers in Europe), splitting the land in two. And to the east...Russia.

This time the letter from Nexsound held Andrey Kiritchenko's True Delusion, which is a cd presenting (according to their site):
"Minimalist harmonic overtones made with acoustic guitar; slow, melodic and minimalist sound of piano; recordings of rural nature sounds; digital treatment and concrete noise". Quite accurate. "True Delusion" holds ambient noise not being noisy. Slow-flowing abstractions of minimalism and repetition. As an artist Kiritchenko sort of explore and challenge the contemplative and meditative. And his compositions make me think of some minimal tribal music. It seems to be a disc touching the theme of illusion. The illusions of life. Man-made or mind-made.

I'm not sure if I get all of it but True Delusion is quite a fascinating listen. And it makes me indeed relax. Maybe the whole record is an illusion? Tracks of illusion.

Copyright © 2005 Håvard Oppøyen