The Retuses. "Astra"

Mikhail Rodionov has a conceptually literary approach to the albums of his group The RETUSES . Waltz debut Baltika ! " , for which the group began to be called “our Beirut ”, was dedicated to Rodionov’s youthful impressions of a trip to the Baltic Sea - that is, these were musical diaries about traveling in space and time. On the new “ Astra ” plate, for which the leader Retuses switched to the composition of songs in Russian, under the names of the constellations is encrypted by a set of portraits of historical personalities, whose names Rodionov do not disclose, providing the listener with a interpretation space.

Mikhail Rodionov considers Astra a risky step. The group, which seemed to find its audience and intonation, recording the touching ballads on the verses of Sergei Yesenin, did not repeat the successful recipe, but set off for experiments in the home studio. And here's what came of this - the premiere on colta.ru:

The Retuses - "Gemini"

Mikhail Rodionov

English, French - wonderful, but I'm tired. Something in Russian is much harder, and from here it is more interesting. We need crazy control for everything, everything is much thinner here. In general, this is a big experiment, primarily on oneself. I looked at this this way: what could come of it if I never really listened to Russian music.

Of course, it would be possible to release something on the poems of the classics and twist this barrel organ again and again, but no. I would not really like to repeat myself, and it is better to move away from this, sooner or later, but I would have to do it. After the songs on the lyrics of the Silver Age, to release such an album as “Astra” -perhaps my most difficult and to some extent risky step.

The Retuses - "Hydra"

In "Astra" is not that the declared absence of bright melodies, here they are, but still this is by no means pop schemes. Not popular. ... Not an even number of squares on a tool, on the same pipe ... I was just interested to experiment with this, since there is some kind of inappropriation, incompleteness in this ... And it sometimes sounds very cool.

In terms of music, everything here is different than in previous albums: more experiments, more panorama, the sound has become better, in the end. “Astra” is an album for the same freaks like me.

Presentations of the album The RETUSES will be held on November 22 in the Central House of the Artist (Moscow) and November 28 in the "waiting hall" (St. Petersburg).