KROK: Vinyl LP

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Mr Bongo
Release Date: 24th October

Born in Belarus and recorded in COI03's sonic heartland of Sao Paulo with lush strings and woodwinds recorded in the band's new homeland of Warsaw, composer Alex Chumak's project pulls in that Euro-Soviet experimental orchestral rock with the tropical warmth and folk of Brazilian MPB. Sonically one of the finest records I've heard all year, meticulously recorded to tape and with collaborations from modern Brazilian greats Sessa, Biel Basile, Marcelo Cabral and Tim Bernardes.

Despite immense challenges, SOYUZ have delivered a career-defining album
in KROK."Krok" means "step" in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his
band this word comes with a lot of meaning
It's the title and theme that ran throughout COIO3 (SOYUZ)'s fourth album, reflecting
the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to
political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
Embracing the uncertainty became both the inspiration and main lyrical theme for
Alex Chumak, SOYUZ' composer and arranger, who also decided to go a step further
and change the language in which he writes songs from Russian, which is used as
lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries, to his native Belarusian. The result is nine
songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very
distant at the same time.
In early 2022, Chumak and original members, Mikita Arlou and Anton Nemahai, joined
tens of thousands of Belarusians seeking safety abroad. Resettling in Warsaw, the
band released Force of the Wind in October 2022, garnering widespread acclaim, a
string of major European gigs, and led to Polish musicians Albert Karch and Igor
Wisniewski joining the band.
Deeper and more melancholic than previous works, KROK is quintessentially SOYUZ,
laced with hope, dreams and a celebration of life. Given the difficulties with finding
rehearsal and recording spaces in Warsaw and the departure of the drummer Anton
Nemahai from the band, Chumak explored alternative options. He reached out to
friend and fellow musical collaborator, Sessa , about the possibility of recording the
new album in his recently finished studio in Sao Paulo, with Sessa and Biel Basile
coming onboard as recording engineers.
At the tail end of 2024, Chumak and SOYUZ' new drummer, Albert Karch, made the trip
to Sao Paulo to record the first sessions for KROK. Laid down directly to tape, these
sessions featured prominent Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile, and Marcelo
Cabral, with a guest vocal feature by Tim Bernardes recorded at a later date. The final
touches were then added back in Europe. Lush string and woodwind arrangements
written by Chumak and Karch were recorded at the Polish Radio studio in Warsaw, and
Rhodes parts were added by Chumak at Sven Wunder's studio in Stockholm.
Though primarily recorded in Brazil, KROK is not a Brazilian or MPB album. It blends
the band's Eastern European roots with jazz, folk and global influences. The genre of
the music is hardly identifiable: there are folk ballads and jazz- driven pop
compositions covered in lush and often dissonant string and woodwind arrangements
where each note is placed with care and meaning behind it.
The title track was the first song Chumak wrote in Belarusian as an adult, making for a
fitting opener and one of the band's finest tracks. Darker than most of SOYUZ' songs,
the tensions lift and lighten as the track progresses. The cinematic library jazz of 'Voo
Livre', with ghostly vocals sung by Cica Goes and Ina, feels like a modern twist on the
Italian library composer Alessandro Alessandroni through its sublime choir and
woodwind orchestration. Elsewhere, the heartfelt 'Lingua Do Mundo', composed,
written, and sung by Chumak and the incredible Tim Bernardes, features one of the
standout string arrangements from Chumak and Karch. 'Cichi Karahod' is an instant
SOYUZ classic, almost Pat Metheny-esque as it opens, with the acoustic guitar and
bass riff transitioning into jazzy AOR / pop-folk territory. The record closes with 'Smak
zyccia', a gentle, dreamy spoken-word poetry