Shopping Hour

The Ukrainian lounge is living and the Ukrainian women are not the last to have concern with it.

The album “Shopping Hour” recently completed at the “Kofein” studio evidences it. The main conception of the album belongs to the composer and arranger Tania “Sha” Shamshedinova, she also became a musical producer of the project.

«The idea to create an hour - long album of pleasant music didn’t occur at once.
At first some tracks combining the Eastern and the Western, the ancient and the modern were being gathered. Then there appeared the name – “Shopping Hour” – the hour to spend on shopping. As a real formalist, I had to make it precisely a one – hour – long - album, of course. The album may be used instead of a watch now. There are also no pauses in the album, by the way. Every single track is being combined with the next one through various city noises – lorry din, police sirens wail out or underground whirr, for example. There is also a composition where we used recordings from one of the American airplane’s “black box”.
The album’s slogan – “The worldest music” – is 100% sized up by the album’s music. There are Arabian and Far East percussions, an Armenian duduk, an Irani gheychak, Ukrainian telynka and sopilka are also to be heard in the album, as well as 8 languages, among which there are Turkish, Malagasy and Hindi to be found.
The album contains Serbian, Macedonian and Ukrainian folk – songs.

The work on the album lasted over 2 years. The main operations – assemblage, mixing– were conducted in Kiev by sound engineers Yuriy Akop and Andriy Makarenko. The gheychak, however, was recorded at the “Aftabe Alamtab Studio” in Tehran.
Generally, there are over 20 creative personalities to take part in the album compiling, among them are well-known Kiev musicians: singers Olga Neka and Olena Lvova, a pianist Pavlo Stolbov, a drummer Olexandr Beregos’ky, a trumpeter Petro Petruccio Yakovchenko, saxophonist and clarinettist Igor Chernov, a duduk – player Armen Kostandyan, a guitarist Genadiy Sidorov. Special guests of the project – Svetislav Grbich (vocal), Dimitriy (rap), Reza Abai (gheychak) and Ruslan Pashins’kyy (telynka).

The Worldest Music CD

Tracklist

1. Intro
2. Love
3. Between Ma' and Mo'
4. Telynka_Continental (Part I)
5. Bela|Crvena
6. Some Coffee In
7. Dam-m-m
8. Ne Kuny Me
9. Melele
10. Lola Bye
11. M.J. Disco
12. Isn’t She Wild?
13. Telynka_Continental (Part II)
14. Savoir Aimer
15. Die Trennung

Svetislav Grbich – vocal (5, 7), voice samples (15)
Dimitri – vocal (14), rap (3, 6)
Ruslan Pashins..kyy – telynka (4, 13)
Reza Abai - gheychak (5)Tanya Sha – keyboards, string arrangements
Genadiy Sidorov – guitars (3, 6, 9, 14), drums programming, remix (13), noise tracks
Olena Lvova – vocal (3), back vocal (10)
Olga Neka - vocal (10)
Pavlo Stolbov – piano (12)
Olexandr Beregovs‘ky – percussion (12)
Igor Chernov – clarinet (3, 9)
Armen Kostandyan – duduk (8, 10)
Petro Petruccio Yakovcheko – trumpet (6)
Roman Soluk – sopilka (12)
Andriy Makarenko – back vocal (4)
Olexandr Kubyshkin – back vocal (5)
Julia Berezovskaya - voice samples (6, 12)
Olena Yakovleva - voice samples (15)
Yuriy Akop – voice samples (1)

The cover design belongs to the well-known among progressive Kharkiv designers Olena Solomadina.
The project was performed under the auspices of the “4th block” society (Kharkiv), Modern Art Center (Kharkiv), producer Vitaliy Barmashyn and “Direct Distribution” label (Kiev).

Intro

Someone clever once said that epigraph is the most important, it is the thing that makes a composition look more sophisticated. If you can’t find an epigraph best matching to your composition, make up your own one. Sha did it. So as to create a particular mood with the listener, the CD starts with a mixture of city noises, with a nice patch found in Access Virus and an offer “Lets go shopping!”, kindly voiced by sound engineer Yuriy Akop, who mixed most of the compositions of the “Shopping Hour”.

Love

It is a rather old dance track inspirited by Indian strains. A hot quick – moving intelligent-house, performed by Sha on her favourite programme electronic-piano EVP. Samples “I love you” and “Do you love me too”, pronounced with a unique lyricism of a moderate German porno impart a special mood to the album.

Between Ma' and Mo'

The song has got a tangible ethnic touch, though it is hard to say which exactly… At the beginning Dimitri reads rap in his mother tongue, a considerably forgotten one, however, – Malagasy, the clarinet solo by Igor Chernov creates an atmosphere of a kind of a “kleismir-band”, Olena Lvova sings something Middle-East troublous. And along with this, such a lounge – cocktail sounds rather lyrical.

“Between Ma’ and Mo’” has also got an “on-the-side-child – a track “Koniachka” (Engl. – “a gee”) which hasn’t been included to the album, although it had an incredible success being sent per e-mail among the friends. Genadiy Sidorov made up this mix using Lvova’s “failed” takes and found on the net zoo – audio – files. It was of a curious result – having listened to the “Koniachka”, Olenka spent some time on the floor hooting in laughter : ).

Telynka Continental (Part I)

The composition demonstrates the potential of the Carpathian teynka. Ruslan Pashins’kyy has played on this wind – instrument (two holes only, but plenty of variants!: )). He is also being “joined” by the newsreader from an unfortunately unknown Turkish radio station. Excellent back vocals were performed by Olena lvova and Andriy Makarenko .

Bela|Crvena

This is the song were Svetislav Grbich, an important personality in the project, first comes on in the album. This pleasant young man has greatly enriched the album with strains of his native Balkans (Svetislav is Serbian), though the song is actually a Macedonian one. Trolled by Svetik as a demo-variant, it fell into Yuriy Akop’s hands. He took it to Tehran when recording “gheychak”, then he took it back to Kiev so as to mix it all together, so the composition has got an Irani visa :). Olexandr Kubyshkin was representing a choir of the Tibetan monks at the “Kofein studio”. It also to note, that the name «Bela|Crvena» has nothing to do with the football team “Spartak - Moscow”. The details of the record see hear.

Some Cofee In

An old composition (made up approximately in 2004) was lying in the box waiting for its time to come. It is a rather light beat with South-African motives, French free-style by Dimitri and high notes of the Petro Yakovchenko’s trumpet. A mixture of this all gives an impression of a pre-heat morning somewhere in Tunisia or in Algeria. The air is saturated with a coffee beans aroma and you give yourself a thought whether to drink some of it and take a cover inside. «Would you like some coffee in?» - Julia Berezovs’ka asks, providing hereby the “Shopping Hour” with a kind of a curtsy to the studio where the project was completed.

Damm

This is one more greeting from India with its variegation. The guy whose singing opens up the composition obviously had no idea that his mantra about Krishna and Rama will be on the top of house beat with electro-clash bass. All in all, it ends good, saxophone reef imparts softness and reminiscences to the stylistics of the Buddah Bar. However, this track is probably the hardest in the album.

Ne Kuni Me

Svetsilav Grbich, mentioned above, brought Sha one of his most favourite Serbian folk songs. “Ne kliany mene, mamo, ne svary mene, mamo/Ne pytaj mene pro moju doliu” (“Don’t curse me, mother, don’t scold me, mother/Don’t ask me, mother, about my fate”). This is a plaintive melody embellished with loop and darbuzi, with harp and strings. A special place in the track takes real recording from the crashed airplane’s “black boxes”. There are also some radioset conversations between American militaries in Vietnam to hear in the middle of the track. The fact, that every sound track really has a dramatic story behind, realizing that the words heard in the composition might be the last words in someone’s life makes one shiver. Svetislav said that these recordings drove some of his acquainted to tears. A special thanks to Armen Kostandian who played the duduk.

Melele

An African-Southern-Eastern dish with a droplet of a French nervous perfume. There sings a man from the «Deepest India», the one to play the strings is someone from «The Heart of Africa», and there is also a French lady complaining about her problems. Despite of an image depicting a kind of international asylum, the track is rather holistic, complete and energetic. Igor Chernov played the clarinet.

Lola Bye

A tribute to the Ukrainian folklore, a folk song, known as “Oj, gej!”. Performed by Olia Neka without the sad text (“Oh, let the one who doesn’t know what sorrow is ask me!”) resembles of Osman or Balkan melodies. The Armen Kostandyan’s duduk also furthers it. Back – vocal tracks (as well as the Balkan pathos in the end) performed by Olena Lvova.

MJ Disco

The destiny of a song may be very weird…This one was initiated as a draft for a commercial clip of one of the biggest beer manufacturers. Later Sha mentioned that that it was the best place for it and gave in some disco to the old mix so as everybody could tittup. Fortunately, the author doesn’t understand the meaning of the most verbal samples to hear on her disc, but it doesn’t refer to the international name Mary Jane being pronounced by an unknown girl in the “MJ Disco” in Hindi.

Isn't She Wild?

This composition is to consider as a beginning of the project. Once our old friends, pianist Pavlo Stolbov and his colleague percussionist Olexandr Beregovs’kyy visited Egypt. Sashko brought a new goblet drum (darbuka) and Pavlo brought couple of CDs with local music. He gave Sha one of the CDs, so as she could hear it through and think if it is possible to do something using it. She started, but it was really hard to stop. A sample by one of the locals (forgot to see his name, unfortunately) became a refrain for an acid-jazz track. Stolbov played electric piano, Beregovs’kyy – new goblet drum, in addition, they also invited a well-known sopilka – player Roman Soluk, who imitated the Armenian duduk on the clarinet with mysterious constructions familiar to him only. The name came itself – the Egyptian boy was singing something like “Isn’t She Wild?”. Julia Berezovs’ka, our favourite sample – donor, was the one to point it out. A great thanks to Pavlo and Olexandr: you didn’t even imagine what you had plugged in…

Telynka_Continental(Part II)

After Ruslan Pashyns’kyy visit to the “Kofein studio” there was too much vivid material left, the biggest part of it didn’t get to the first version of the track. Natural Ukrainian chariness prompted to make up «Part II» to the «Telynka Continental». This half – remix had no acid/smooth – jazz sentiments – Genadiy Sydorov, the author, having recalled the old times, made up something very alike to trans of the end of the 90s.

Savoir Aimer

We have this track in the album thanks to Sha’s persistent wish. Once visiting the “Kofein”, Dimitri jokingly decided to record one of his favourite French songs a cappella. As the “Shopping Hour” boss heard it, she said “I want it!”. What can a man do about it…The song is very beautiful, however. There also comes up a question when listening to Dimitri’s singing – why does he need rap?

Die Trennung

If all of the previous tracks are being combined with the city noises, which mix modern technologies and ancient cultures, this one, the last one, sounds to its accompaniment. The piano play by Sha (she can do even that) tells a story a farewell between two people. She reads him an article from an explanatory dictionary about what farewell/breaking up is, and he reads her a poetic excerpt from Charles Bukowski devoted to the same topic. Dramatic, beautiful, and a little bit sad…Untill we hear a request to “step off the train”…