Description
Label Review.
2019 album. Kscope. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
Russian duo Iamthemorning, comprising of virtuoso classical pianist Gleb Kolyadin and charismatic vocalist Marjana Semkina are releasing their new album ‘The Bell’. An album that follows on from the success of their two studio albums for Kscope (three in total) and their most recent live film ‘Ocean Sounds’. Their dedication to writing forward-thinking and thought-provoking music sees the duo create a new album of impressive depth and playability.
‘The Bell’ is a modern blend of rock, classical and folk and makes use of 19th Century song cycles – a style established by Schubert – that cohesively tells 10 individual stories. Vocalist Marjana Semkina explains in more detail “The Bell is divided into two parts but each song is a story in its own right, all of them are fuelled by human cruelty and pain caused by it. Cruelty is the central theme of the album – together with all the different ways we respond to it and cope with it. This album is multi-layered and is, in many ways, a journey inwards, taking us inside of a mind of a person suffering from abuse or neglect or open hostility of the society or a specific person.
“Aesthetically, the album is based on themes taken from Victorian England’s art and culture, but more in a way of turning our attention to the fact that at its core, humankind isn’t making much progress in terms of emotional maturity.” The lyrical imagery draws on themes from Victorian England’s art and culture, which had a prevalent fixation with death.
Iamthemorning have built a powerful momentum with a dedicated online and live following. They have been supported by PROG magazine as one of the most important artists in modern progressive music, culminating in winning the Album of the Year award with ‘Lighthouse’ at the Progressive Music Awards 2016. The duo has also headlined London’s prominent stages Bush Hall (with Tim Bowness) and O2 Academy Islington, and their European festival performances include Spain’s Be Prog! My Friend, the UK’s Ramblin’ Man, the Netherland’s Midsummer Prog Festival and Marillion Weekend. In 2018 Gleb played as support for Anathema at Kscope’s 10th-anniversary label concert at the Union Chapel, and Marjana sang with Vincent and Daniel Cavanagh of Anathema for their London show.
'The Bell' was recorded in March 2019 across Russia, the UK and Canada in several studios: Mosfilm in Moscow; Lendoc and Red Wave in St Petersburg; Noatune in London; The Studio at Sunbeams, Penrith; and Union Sound Company in Toronto. With engineering and mastering handled by Vlad Avy.
The artwork, created by Constantine Nagishkin, portrays the once popular ‘coffin bell’ used as an alert system to indicate that a person had been mistakenly buried alive, which was a terrible phobia held by the Victorians. The engineering and mastering were handled by Vlad Avy, and recorded in March 2019 across Russia, the UK and Canada in several studios: Mosfilm in Moscow; Lendoc and Red Wave in St Petersburg; Noatune in London; The Studio at Sunbeams, Penrith; and Union Sound Company in Toronto.
This CD edition of ‘The Bell’ is presented in digi sleeve packaging complete with a booklet. This LP edition of ‘The Bell’ is presented on heavyweight 180gm vinyl in a gatefold sleeve complete with a poster booklet.