Theodor Bastard – ▽

Theodor Bastard refuse to stay still. In the five years of relative silence since their last studio venture, the world music pioneers were searching for a way out of the darkness that’s descended over reality. What the band discovered wasn’t a new path but one that connects back to their home in the harsh northern forest region of Karelia, which has always informed their imagination. By reconnecting with their electronic roots, Theodor Bastard are reborn on ▽.           ▽ reflects just how much has changed since the world last heard from Theodor Bastard. While still widely recognized both in and outside of Russia as leaders for ritual folk and world music, the band have re-embraced their early electronic impulses because that’s now how modern life feels: cold, sharp, tense. Long-time fans were pleasantly surprised when the pulse-pounding analog synths of “Nebo” first appeared in the award-winning Russian crime drama The Method, but the album’s lead single is a sure sign that they’re bound for dark new horizons. Like a space shuttle, “Sverkay” rumbles with distorted bass before it’s suspended high above the earth by a trap-like beat.   “Вдох - выдох (Inhale – Exhale)”, sings a bewitching Yana Veva as she glimpses what’s to come from our dangerous endgame with war, technology and social division.   To a world that’s mired in its own deadly trance, ▽ arrives like a much-needed slap across the face. The album was created during a long and trying period for Theodor Bastard. It offers little comfort; its anger, confusion and disappointment are hurled at the outside world, which through our own actions, is tipping over the edge. The aggressive “Vedma” surges with black cosmic energy, as if summoning the apocalypse. But the band aren’t without hope. At their core, the ritual spirit remains. “Ostavlyaem” dances as light as a feather, only to transcend this earth for a place amongst the stars.   With  ▽, Theodor Bastard return with dark electronics for dark times.   

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