Akvarium
Ravnodenstvie

A bit out of curiosity, a bit out of whim, I started looking into what kind of people in Russia were making music. I ended up with a not very long list of supposed "artists," many of whom were big shots unnecessary to the artistic purpose.

A name that intrigued me a lot was Akvarium, an "ancient" progressive rock band, formed in what was then called Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1972. To be honest, it's not true prog rock, in fact, to be honest, there's very little prog in this album. But let's pretend nothing's amiss, let's move on and better analyze what makes us lean our ears towards our stereo speakers. This is their eleventh album (we're in 1987), and perhaps that's why the prog vein has faded, but these are just assumptions since I haven't had the chance to listen to anything else.

"Ravnodenstvie" is nonetheless an enjoyable album, prog or not. The instrumental parts are delicate, the most satisfying being the guitar parts, such as the solo in "Lebedinaya Stal". Other interesting compositions, primarily for their stylistic personality, are "Iablyudatel" and "Adelaida". What truly convinces me very little, in my modest opinion, are the vocal parts: sung in the native language and not very impactful, lacking the presence of a truly compelling vocalist. Even "Derevo" leaves me puzzled, completely off-topic for that time, a reggae style with an accordion (!).