On »Studia Spiritual«, the clichéd name of which says a lot about the genres served, S A D (Vasily Stepanov and Vlad Dobrovolski) do not collaborate as a musical duo in the conventional sense. The nine tracks – the tenth, »Meditation« by Dobrovolski himself, is available as a digital bonus – move in the field of cosmic music, jazz, psychedelic and obviously a lot of improvisation. »Ini Ke Edi«, the longest and at the same time only track as ASD, gives a good impression of what S A D understand as a musically ideal form. Several disturbing noises that don’t seem to follow a really recognisable sequence cut through approaches made by drumming, glockenspiel and long sustained, ambient tones. This soothes and sounds like a chill-out area, even if the experiment stands above all else. Things get a bit wilder as P-SH: »Merging Bottoms«, one of three pieces under this alias, swings more clearly in the direction of jazz, »Netoa Vi« also has a constant rhythm at least, which some atonal but almost conventional trumpet playing keeps alive. FE serves up arpeggios that course hotter and hotter through the circuits of the synthesiser responsible, and has an almost Balearic feel, designed for the sunset. A changeable record that lacks a musical thread, but should appeal to all the more tastes because of it.
Studia Spiritual
