Staraya Derevnya
Inwards Opened the Floor
by: Sebastián Franco
Recorded at the mythical Café OTO, and with fairly wide instrumentation, Inwards Opened The Floor is an album filled with chaotic, dissonant, and serene moments.
Staraya Derevnya is an Israel-based music collective -currently settled in the United Kingdom- that mixes their sound with a myriad of styles, crossing between folk and avant-garde elements that go as far as krautrock, and ethereal sounds that progress in an almost endless experimentation process. The band has been moving through the ranks of the British experimental circle, landing live appearances in importante festivals and forums such as the Tusk Festival or the legendary Café OTO, where they have demonstrated their envious strength as a collective and as individual musicians.
Inwards Opened The Floor was released this past September 4th and was recorded during their residence at the Café OTO. The album itself is a well-balanced act of randomness: improvised motifs open a free space with a playful and awe-inspiring air. On their first track, "On how the thorny orbs got here", the band plays with hypnotic rhythmic patterns which are accompanied by dissonant saxophones and voices that seem to be engaging in glossolalia; a consistent dynamic throughout the album.
Another outstanding example is “Hogweed is done with buckwheat” -a much more chaotic cut-, where violent atmospheres appear causing an abrupt explosion as the piece progresses, but without compromising the lysergic trance accompanying the entire album; it truly showcases the synchronicity and the experimentation chops the band has been honing.
There’s also a glimpse of this in “Burning bush and apple saucer”, a song that continues in the same vein, where soft vocals seem to be engaging in a liturgy riddled with incomprehensible messages that somehow manage to create a sense of calmness accompanied by cyclical sound patterns that leave the listener in a detached state, completely removed from reality as they enter Staraya’s highly textured world.
Although the band can make us think of names like Faust, or even the abrasive Oiseaux-Tempête, Staraya displays a distinct sound that always seems to be moving forward on each track and does not lose its essence, leaving a tangible mark throughout the album, making it clear that the band’s stylistic range is almost unlimited while remaining authentic and filled with unique characteristics. This album leaves us wanting to hear what the group will do in the future, and what they will be able to offer moving forward to a sound that, awaits more questions.
