SOYUZ :: KROK

Tracked live to tape at Sessa and Biel Basile’s São Paulo studio, Krok captures the Belarusian outfit in a moment of transition, stretching the sinewy tendrils of their earlier work into something more expansive and self-possessed. Where their previous LP steeped itself in the gentle saudade of Brazil’s Clube da Esquina, Krok pulls the lens back as the palette broadens and horizons turn transcontinental.

SOYUZ :: Force Of The Wind

SOYUZ’s Force of the Wind is an imitation of the Brazilian Clube da Esquina scene of the 1970s, in the sense that it adheres to certain aesthetic principles and compositional signifiers associated with that group. It even explicitly names its models: Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, Burnier & Cartier, Arthur Verocai. Yet it’s clear that any appropriation of Brazilian music is careful and loving, as Alex Chumak wants to not only pay homage to the 1970s MPB that fascinates him, but to play with its grammar, extend it, renovate it. To sound Brazilian yet not Brazilian, as he explains.