Лінія Маннергейма — Конфіскат (2020)

Although the date of formation of the project Лінія Маннергейма (Mannerheim Line) is considered 2017, however, the first musical experiment-collaboration of Kharkiv poets Oleg Kadanov and Serhii Zhadan took place at the Book Forum in Lviv in 2016, even then Serhii took with him Ievgen Turchinov (guitarist of the band Жадан і Собаки (Zhadan and the Dogs) and later it was a spoken word experiment (in which, for the most part, Serhii Zhadan read his poems under the musical accompaniment of the rest of the participants), developed into a full-fledged band, which conducts dialogue with the listener through the lens of electronic-guitar music.

The debut full-length studio album "Конфіскат" ("Confiscate") is a logical continuation of previous works released in 2018, 2 mini-albums: "Де твоя лінія?" ("Where is Your Line?") and "Бої без правил" ("Fights Without Rules"). The debut single "Де твоя лінія?" ("Where is Your Line?" which sounds like a manifesto of a tumultuous generation after 2 years, and all 3 songs from "Боїв без правил" ("Fights Without Rules") are included in the new album.

It is already traditionally recorded and mastered the album by Dmytro Zinchenko (Stoned Jesus, Sekunda kota, ex-Оркестр Че (Orchestra Che)), which although he does not take part in live performances of the Лінії Маннегрейма, but he can be considered a completely fourth member of the band, because on all recordings he plays drums, bass, synthesizer and guitar.

In a press release of the album, musicians say that "Конфіскат" is a continuation of Christian hip-hop musicians declare, combining biblical-social lyrics and experimental electronic-guitar sound.

But it is important to understand that the definition of "Christian hip-hop" in this case is rather ironic, because the material of the Лінії Маннергейма to the genre in its classical sense, has almost no relevance. It is not about churchness or Christianity as a religion, but what shapes our worldview - faith and disappointment, hope and despair, love and hatred, and, most importantly, responsibility for one's words and actions.

"Confiscate is one of the metaphors of our time. This is a product that is taken from people who work illegally. It is the intersection of light and dark. We are curious to talk about it, and we are singing about it. It is an emblem of our time, after which our historical era will then be identified," — Serhii Zhadan (source).

The album sounds rather coherent and somewhat reminiscent of one of the poem-books by Serhii Zhadan — all the lyrics seem to be different, but at the same time they harmoniously unite with each other and, as puzzle pieces, they form a whole.

However, if one compares "Конфіскат" with the previous works of the band, there is no recitation of famous poems for music, all the texts are written specifically for the project and most of them are played for the first time, although some of them have already been presented in live performances. For me, it came in handy, because I still wanted to separate the Zhadan-Poet a little from the Zahdan-Musician as much as possible, in the first Лінія Маннегрейма is a musical collaboration of talented people, but not a soundtrack to Serhii’s poems.

There is no sense to parse all the texts, because they have no claims (and otherwise it cannot be, because the project involves two famous poets), and the very idea of ​​the Лінії Маннегрейма is that this "line" for each is own. There is no straightforwardness in the lyrics, so you can interpret them differently, but each time you play the album, the listener notices something new, but not because it was previously inattentive, but because the lyrics are so deep that every time a song is re-interpreted.

In terms of music, the Лінію Маннергейма is difficult to put in the genre, the most characteristic of "electronic guitar music", which has a trip-hop sound. In the case of "Конфіскат", the music and lyrics are in perfect harmony, but in fact, they can fully exist and separately, which is not common in our time.

Among other things, the album features the song "Озеро" ("Lake"), which is reminiscent of "Гранули" ("Granules") or "Воду" ("Water") of the Танок на Майдані Конґо (Tanok na Maydani Kongo, literally: Dance at The Congo Square), not least thanks to the vocal of Oleg "Фагот" Mykhailuta, who was invited to participate in the recording.

Лінія Маннергейма — this is the case when it doesn't make sense to speak and parse letters by letter, music by notes - is not a mass release, but it is a message to those who can listen and have something to say. Every song on the album is a philosophical story of our time, a story about each of us, every text is a spiritual message to everyone who hears. This is a message for all who are not afraid of the dark. For all who are not scared by the light.

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Лінія Маннергейма in social network:

https://www.facebook.com/mannerheim.line/
https://soundcloud.com/mannerheimline