Lucidvox - Around

Taken from the album "We Are"
CD/LP: https://bit.ly/lucidvox
Stream/DL: https://idol.lnk.to/We_Are

Firmly established as an influential voice in the burgeoning Russian DIY rock scene, Lucidvox’s incendiary mixture of atmospheric psych-rock, heavy riffs and Russian folk mystery has already gained them both critical attention and audience loyalty outside of their hometown of Moscow. We Are (мы есть) is their first international album release and the next element in their rapid rise.

Lucidvox comprises four women based in Moscow: Alina (vocals/flute), Nadezhda (drums), Galla (guitar) and Anna (bass). Formed in 2013, according to Galla their inception was “a bit like a joke. Because only Anna had had a band before. Me and Nadezhda hadn’t played our instruments before that.” Anna picks up the story: “We were all kind of friends, because we have a lot of mutual friends who play in other bands. That’s how we started to know each other, and slowly we got to the idea of creating our own band.”

Like everything else in Lucidvox, the songwriting process was highly democratic from the start. There is no central songwriter in the band. The songs take shape both from contributions brought into the rehearsal space by any one of the members, and from subsequent collective improvisation and discussion.

Along with the band’s growing confidence and heft of sound, more than ever they are committed to making music that directly reflects both who they are and where they are from. Even as their international reputation has grown, they have never considered singing songs in English. “Since we live here and speak this language,” Anna notes, “the most true way to express ourselves is with the Russian language. If we did it in English, we wouldn’t feel as honest as we do in Russian.” But this commitment to place doesn't start and stop just with language. In the band's sonic explorations, there has always been a subtle nod to Russian traditional music and folklore. As Alina says: “We have one song which is a traditional Russian folk song with Russian folk lyrics. But that sort of feeling is also there in other songs.” Galla adds: “I am interested in Russian folk tales, not only the music. We never consciously said ‘let’s play folk music.’ But it is in our music because some of us are interested or have been interested in it.”

Over the last five years or so, new exponents of the Russian underground rock and electronic scenes have slowly begun to be heard outside their home country. Lucidvox is at the front of this growing wave, along with Moscow’s Glintshake and the fast-rising St Petersburg band Shortparis. This generation of artists “understands you can play in other countries when you show your own country and your own culture,” says Galla, ‘and that makes the music more interesting, not only in Russia.”

Which brings us to the title of the new Lucidvox album, We Are, as in this is who we are. Both the album, and the ongoing trajectory of this powerful band, are linked to the search for identity: as a person, as a musician, as a member of a tightly knit group of creative women. Anna puts it this way: “The reason we called our album We Are is that now we feel like we can be ourselves. Very strong. Both in our personalities and in the band. We also at this point have some sort of place in the musical world.” With an album as uncompromising and exhilarating as this, Lucidvox’s place in the world is only going to get bigger and bigger.

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