Psoy, whose stage star rose in the mid-1990s, has long had his own audience, a close circle of fans – those who understand (his often encrypted dialogue with Russian literature and poetry). The new album – like the previous one, “Russian Wealth – 1” (2007), is grown from classic texts, mostly from the Silver Age. Turned inside out by the performance. Tsvetaeva's "Oh, tears in my eyes..." is sung bravura and foolishly, with the refrain "param-pam-pam", Pasternak's "Winter Night" about falling shoes is called "A Song about a Poltergeist" and performed with hussar bravado, Khlebnikov's "The Word about El" Psoy wheezes like a barge hauler, and Zabolotsky's "In this birch grove..." is sung to the average tune of a Soviet pop hit from the 1970s.

Who are you laughing at, Psoy Galaktionovich? At yourself. At what not you, but we (Psoy never separates himself from his audience) have turned our “Russian wealth” into. Into a garish picture, into a glade of idols – worn out, but never seriously read. The freedom and irony with which Psoy orchestrates famous texts also enlivens their authors. With their weaknesses, programmatic benevolence (like Zabolotsky) or feigned joy, like in Harms’s “Circus Printinpram”. The most unexpected of all were the dictations invented by Leo Tolstoy for his “ABCs”. Psoy sang them cheerfully and forcefully: “I’m waiting for my uncle. I’m rubbing the seed. I’m ripping the figs. I’m burning the hay. I’m bending the linden trees. I’m shaking hands. Don’t lie and don’t tell lies. Don’t make the dog angry.” And through the absurd set of phrases, a possessed, stubborn old man with a plow suddenly emerged, fervently convinced of his own rightness.

However, there is also a pier free of irony here – “Ships”. Together with Alena Alenkova, in Yiddish and Russian, Psoy sentimentally and sadly performs a song full of hidden light to the words of Zishe Landau (music by Chava Alberstein) “Who rules the ships that sail the seas?” This song is located right in the center of the album. Let him who has intelligence count.

The presentation will take place on February 20 at the Chinese Pilot Zhao Da club.

"Russian Wealth. Volume II": Don't Lie and Don't Tell Lies