Igor Osypov is an artist standing at a complex crossroads where different worlds intersect. As a Ukrainian exiled in Berlin, unable to return home, he is obliged to negotiate different cultural and political identities, and as a forward-looking contemporary musician he chooses to negotiate the different genres of jazz, rock, electronica and other less easily defined traditions. Motherland is his response: an extraordinary project exploring identity and belonging.
Using his own electronically realized sketches as a base, Osypov took a band of his favorite musicians into the studio – Uli Kempendorff on tenor sax, trumpeter Dima Bondarev and Povel Widestrand on keys, underpinned by drummer extraordinaire Fabian Rösch – and expanded the sonic palette to include collaborators from across the world – saxophonist Logan Richardson, Petter Eldh on double bass, Bodek Janke on tabla and percussion, and beatmaker/producer Ludwig Wandinger. Simultaneously he called on the international community of his fellow exiled Berlin artists to ask them the question: “Where do you go when you cannot go home?” Audio fragments of the resulting interviews, in multiple languages, are interwoven with the music to create a uniquely powerful, viscerally moving statement.
In each of the ten tunes, the interview voices interweave with the horns, led by Bondarev’s alternately soaring and tender trumpet, joining in chorus over the raw energy of Osypov’s bass guitar and Rösch’s ever-shifting drum patterns. Then they are layered with electronic effects, creating pieces that have an alt-rock conciseness and power, opening out to reveal shifting complexities underneath the group textures, drawing the listener ever deeper in.
‘Vango’ sets the scene, with crunchy bass guitar and slip-sliding drums intermingling with Kim Jong Ha’s narration, Logan’s piercing alto and pulsing synths creating a kaleidoscope of rhythm and texture. ‘Rasperry Beat’ features tales of urban alienation alongside cascading freeform horns. “For me its important to trust the band and not over-write – the music has to have spaces for the band to explore and discover new things.” On ‘Crypto’ the bleeping chipcore synths give an idea of retro futurity – “how we imagined the future would sound.
‘Low’ has vital contributions from Rösch, flipping the rhythms to create an web of aural illusion – “if the drummer’s right then the rest is easy.” ‘Nebo’ and ‘Zemlya’ are a pair of pieces – the titles mean ‘Sky’ and ‘Earth’ in Russian – with Povel Widesdstand’s keyboards augmented by tabla “Povel understands how texture is important.” Equally important in the mix is the free-ranging improvisation of Uli Kemperdorff’s saxophone – “He’s more of an avante-garde jazz player but I like to get people to play what they don’t usually play.”
Igor’s own life story is deeply interwoven into the album’s themes: ’15 Years Of Happiness’ is a tribute to his wife, and ‘Underground Kingdom’ refers to the people of Ukraine forced to shelter from the destruction of their cities. His own inimitable crunched, dirty-sounding guitar soloing can be heard on some tracks, but the lead voice throughout belongs to the trumpet of his old friend and compatriot Dima Bondarev, whose spoken words are heard on ‘Donetsk’ the closing eulogy to their lost hometown. “I didn’t want this to be a typical guitarist’s album. Dima is my old friend and such a complete musician. He would give up everything for his trumpet!”
Motherland is a powerful and original heartfelt statement, at once personal, political and musical, and full of hope. “Each individual piece is like a time loop in this impossible journey to the past, only by going in circles, it creates new shapes and forms and leads to something new.”
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