Neznamo - Zavet

In my exploration of Mother Russia ambient scene I came over a formation called Neznamo based in Moscow which is an experimental product of Dmitriy Shilov. He started his journey around 1996 under the name Unknown, ten years later transformed it into Neznamo, Dmitriy produced until today a rich gamut of both solo albums and singles together with lots of collaborations with artists in the same area. The single CDr 'Zavet' (behest) was released around two years ago by Yaroslavl based label Vetvei that passionately supports the local scene.

Ambient music had always been something very subjective in terms of feeling and emotions raised during its experiencing. I cannot impose anyone to feel the same because of its inner nature of music composing. But sometimes bands themselves try to reflect their messages either by names of albums or by album's graphics. The message of Neznamo can be found inside the printed sleeve, and it says few simple statements: "Remember, Take care of and Love". The goal of the project from its beginning was to research the human genuine self by immersing him into unconscious using sound and melodic images. That's why I can possibly assume that through his music Dmitriy presents the need to remember the special roots and traditions, about the dawn of spirit and tries to reveal own emotions towards the processes of self-destruction.

The CDr contains of only one long composition of 31 minutes run. It can be divided into four parts that are sown together with a thread of deep mystical hum to create a strong meditative atmosphere. The track starts with a sound of bells which is looped into the spiral that crumples the whole first part. Different field recordings can be heard here and there, like wind blowing over broad snowy plains, rain drops falling on abandoned pond and all of that kind. Slowly the bell's dinging fades away to free a space for a deeper droning part that reminds me of what can be heard from Troum or Maeror Tri , some reverberations of a distant percussion and pale chanting voices, all of that creates a thick hypnotizing ambience. Progressively, the droning hum transforms into low background noise full of night sounds, crickets, birds and others. Did you ever tried to listen to silence? When everything is totally silent around, sometimes you can feel a strong pressure on ear membranes that create an effect of low noise, like nature itself is vibrating around filling the air with energies rising from soil. That what I felt while listening to the third part of the composition, or maybe it is the effect of THC (jokingly). This part lasts for a few minutes trying to chink into armor of my sanity and again slowly fades away to reborn as a droning sound created by some kind of French horn or some other wind-blowing instrument, followed by a very distant shaman drum beat. This final part of the track raised a strong feeling of deja vu from one of Troum's shows which I attended five or six years ago - the same structure and passages, the same sound tones and layers. Still the atmosphere remains meditative and deep until the end of the composition, without sudden rises and falls.

With the album "Zavet", Dmitriy finishes his conceptual trilogy started in 2007 by singles 'Seme>Zemlya' and 'Utrata'. What comes to mind after listening to this creation is a constant feeling of imitation of what can be heard from other ritual drone ambient projects of the scene. But even when reminding those bands, Neznamo has his own imprint in this record, creating atmosphere that is entertaining enough to listen to 'Zavet'. Way to go and hope to hear more development in the future of this project. Jul 15 2012