Rito (2007)

Recently we had a conversation with Ian “Vibrationbaby” Gledhill about Russian Prog. The main idea that can be taken from it is that Russian Prog Artists are less influenced by world music trends, so they take inspiration from their own sources. This is why most bands sound so fresh and innovative.

I lie if I’ll say that VESPERO is NOT that kind of band. In fact, they’re very creative and challening unit, sheer brilliance in terms of Psychedelic Rock. The album may sound a bit too straight-forward and TOO Psychedelic (fans of the genre, add an extra star here to the rating!), but this is because it’s a compilation of instrumental tracks written during band’s career – it’s not quite an album as a union of songs and ideas. Ranging from jam-based grooves to loose ambient soundscapes, music flirts with related genres like Post-Rock, Kraut-Rock and Space-Rock. Evoking GONG, CAN, HAWKWIND and OZRIC TENTACLES shades in listener’s mind, “Rito” never becomes neither a clone nor a blueprint fo something unfinished. Experience and professionalism, maturity and assurance – need more synonyms to VESPERO?

Highly recommended and simply the best Psychedelic Album from this year so far…but if you need more Prog Rock instead of Psychedelic one, check other VESPERO tracks on their RealMusic page

VESPERO is a south russian band which plays trippy, spacey music with references to some other styles too. This album is a collection of recorded songs from 2005/2006, instrumental, except some male and female voices here and there. The tracks are blending into each other building a compelling one hour trip. The complete album is well designed therefore with a very special drumming and sometimes in a droning dramatic mood caused by heavy psych guitars and many synthy electronic elements which also refers to experimental/post rock.

The album is opened by the very mysterious Inverno with violin and distorted guitars. Triptych – to the falling sun is starting canterbury like – a catchy bass line brings tempo to the song but then we glide into a more jazz rocking part with a nice guitar solo and finally change to a dizzy dissonant interaction between violin, synthesizer and the band’s rhythm branch. Rito, the title song and the album highlight works just like a krautrock jam. The band conjurs a wonderful gloomy psych gem gathering a dub groove, flute, synths and spacy guitars.

Inna’s burst in tears shines as a space rocker with melancholic female voices whereas Crabs ashore escalates during the seven minutes, every instrument gets more and more dramatic. Skat and Silence breath echo are spacy improvised – good but not that spectacular. Ambience in blue – altarage to the thunder is ambient floating, near to avant and chamber because of an intense violin interplay, for the last minutes surprising because getting tempo with a happy reggae flavour.

This album has a great aura, not suitable for background listening and not everyone’s taste for sure – appealing to fans of experimental psych and krautrock music.

It took South Russian band Vespero eight self-released CDs, among those one called Luxemburg Live (although I am not aware of them ever playing a concert in my home country), before they decided to rerecord some of their earlier material in a more disciplined way under the guiding eyes of Ms Alisa Coral from the Russian space rock reference Space Mirrors. Although I am not familiar with Vespero’s past, I can imagine that Rito must be the highlight of their career. The short Inverno leads to the ten minute long Triptych: To The Falling Sun, where we get a first taste of the Russians’ inspiration. A hypnotic rhythmic backbone provided by the Fedotov brothers leaves much improvisational ground for guitarist Alexander Kuzovlev who sounds like a young Steve Hillage, and the added trippy electronics make the parallels to Gong even more apparent.

Whenever Vespero opt for more ambient moods, they come close to mid-Seventies Tangerine Dream, although Vespero seem to have a much more sombre outlook. Inna’s Burst In Tears takes its charm from Natalya Tjurina’s melancholic vocals, and Valentin Rulev’s violin spices things up sometimes with fusion jazz overtones, a bit like Jean-Luc Ponty’s Mahavishnu Orchestra period.

Rito bridges the gap between improvised music and composed art rock, with Vespero taking ingredients from genres such as space, psychedelic and progressive rock, turning it all into a cocktail that everyone should enjoy who is into anything between the aforementioned bands. At times, Vespero are meandering maybe a bit, losing focus, but they always find their way back into the song, and Ms Coral’s impeccable mastering job transforms this CD into real ear candy.

One listen to this musical outfit from Southern Russia known as Vespero was all it took to make me begin thinking about the great things that must be happening in Russia, and in particular on the R.A.I.G. (Russian Association of Independent Genres) label which has released the bands debut effort entitled Rito. The group which began a quartet in 2003, went through numerous personal changes before settling on their current lineup, and they’ve spent most of the time working on their own self financed releases up until this point.

Vespero must have been using the past 4 years to diligently hone their craft to arrive at this point musically, because it’s certainly paid off big time and definitely been worth the wait, as Rito sounds like a very mature record from such a young band. The sound leans towards psychedelic / kraut rock, yet this somehow fails to aptly describe the depth of sonic layers found within the music. The compositions generally run in the 7 to 8 minute range, with 2 epic numbers, the spacey, multi tempo “Triptych: To The Falling Sun” and the absolutely stunning closing track “Ambience In Blue / Altarage To The Thunder” both weighing in at over 10 minutes each.

Throughout the course of this disc the Fedotov brothers Ivan (drums) and Arkady (bass, synthesizer, flutes) provide the constant rhythmic muscle for some truly adventurous and daring improvisations. They even venture off into brief flourishes of reggae and dub, as if to further prove they cannot be tied to any one musical genre. Violinist Valentin Rulev’s fluid and graceful passages (see “Ambience in Blue” again) along with guitarist Alexander Kuzolev’s sometimes jagged, effects laden assault, round out the quartet, and one cannot overlook their contributions which are equally as vital to the overall sound. While the majority of Rito concentrates primarily on these lengthy instrumental jams, a few tracks actually feature some brief, ethereal vocal flourishes, which are performed by a duo of female singers, Natalya Tjurina and Karnelia Mango. Rito flows effortlessly from track to track and comes across more as one large cohesive piece of work. In fact the whole disc has such a laid back, dream like quality to it, that it’s very easy and might I say enjoyable as well, to just put this on, sit back, drift away and get lost in the music. Everything from the elegant cover design, to the sterling production work makes this a complete package in the truest sense.

There is so much great music to discover on Rito, and it’s one of the few discs I’ve consistently enjoyed playing from beginning to end, each and every time.Rito’s true allure is its power to lure the listener in with its splendid combination of bold and beautiful ambient atmospherics. To put it simply, this disc is nothing short of a masterpiece.