Kshatriy - Transforming Galaxy

Few months ago I had a pleasure to review the collaboration album of two Russian residents Kshatriy and Vresnit, and I was really impressed by the ambience that they had created. As for me, most of the bands from the post-SSSR region are worth to be checked out at least from curiosity site, the underground culture there is less influenced by the western music development, that's why the chance is high to come across some interesting act.

Now it is a turn of the new album from Kshatriy to get inspected and weighted by your loyal servant. This is a second full length records from this artist, but Sergei, the man behind the project, has already a rich portfolio of different collaborations, split albums and tracks on various compilations. While I dive into the mythology behind the name, I discover the Indian background of the whole creative process, where Kshatriy is an eternal warrior caste in Indian social structure. In the album "Transforming Galaxy", Sergei tries to reflect two main messages of his inner world. The first is the idea of Kali Yuga, the age of dawn and decadence, the worst age of all, when all the virtues are downgraded and forgotten, and his belief that this age is close to the end, the light in the end of the tunnel is bright enough for devoted to see it already. And the second idea is of the origin of uniformity of the entire world, and each single particle carrying an impulse of whole universal establishment. According to Sergei, "Music is a natural language of souls?", and in order to connect myself to the philosophical background, I begin my journey into the musical soundscape, brought through the album of the eternal warrior of light, - Khatriy.

When one chooses this kind of a creative background, usually the demand is for the wide opened plains with strong emotional impulses. The journey starts with an opening track "Initiation into the Higher Self", where from the first tunes I can understand how vast and circumspect the music is. First of all, what is significant to all the tracks that I have ever heard from Kshatriy, is a constant usage of field recordings which become inseparable part of the whole concept. Wind blowing inside trees, constant splashing of the water, birds signing, crickets making their noises during the late hours, dogs barking, everything is bind into the huge canvas,- the picture of the surrounding world, where each and every creature carries a reflection of universal order. Cold sonic landscape opens its doors with the track "The Song of the Unknown", a deep humming melody circles like a wheel of galaxy, supporting the sounds of breathing nature, rainfalls and thunder.

Two following tracks, "Omut" and "Awakening" are the best in this record for my taste. "Omut" brings a deep open space feeling, almost of meditative origin, where the quiet sounds of frozen winter morning are combined with a distant droning background layers. And with "Awakening" all the nature wakes up from a sleep, a light rain washes away dreams of a spring to come; fluting sound welcomes the breath of life around and makes the landscape even vaster and the atmosphere much viscid. On this stage I am already carried away by the river of time to meet the creator of all and to dive into the "Transforming Galaxy" track, much gloomier and heavier experience.

"Hymn to Kali 2" and "Hymn to Kali 3" are even thicker compositions that bring a touch of darkness into the whole structure, maybe as a reflection of the idea of Kali Yuga which I described in my preface before. Finally, to relieve the taste of grimness comes a closing track "Love is a Key", full of celestial, almost heavenly spirit, to reveal a statement of what can be the main cause of finishing the Kali Yuga age.

The idea and the result of the projection of this idea into the musical expression work nicely for Kshatry. Though nothing new explored here from the musical point of view, an able manipulation with the well-know techniques helps in creating a beautiful journey. Those tools can be heard from a lot of artists which already became masters of dark and ritual ambient genres decades ago, like Inade , Herbst9 and few others, but still they sound fresh enough to gain a foothold in "Transforming Galaxy". The exploit of these techniques doesn't cause a plagiarism, contrariwise, it helps Sergei to develop own vision and reach the establishment of his special sound. Jun 16 2012