SHAZAM

Belorussian avant-prog group Rational Diet began an ambitious agenda at the start of 2011, but by the time the bandmembers exited the studio after a series of recording sessions lasting until February of the following year, the group -- or at least Rational Diet as a band name -- was no more. Instead, February 2012 marked the formal founding of a new band, Five-Storey Ensemble, featuring several principal members of Rational Diet. There was also some apparent dissension in the ranks, and another group featuring ex-Rational Diet members who had participated in the sessions -- the Archestra -- emerged at roughly the same time. So while fans of these creative musicians might have lamented the passing of one inventive Rock in Opposition-influenced band, there were now two groups in its place, with the chamber classical Five-Storey Ensemble first out of the gate with the debut recording Not That City, although with a head start of only a month before the more electric rockish Archestra came out with an album of their own, Arches.

After the Italian AltrOck label released three well-received albums by Rational Diet -- 2007's eponymous debut, 2008's At Work, and 2010's On Phenomena and Existences -- the bandmembers in various configurations became involved in a pair of projects in 2011: the soundtrack for a play entitled Bondman's Wings, presented by an experimental theater troupe in Brest, Belarus; and a summer collaboration with Belorussian poet Andrej Khadanovich on an album/audiobook entitled Milosz pa Bialorusku (Milosz in Belorussian), in which the group provided musical accompaniment to readings from the works of Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet and author Czeslaw Milosz.

Meanwhile, in recording sessions at Vozdookh studio in Brest throughout that year and extending to February of the next, bandmembers Olga Podgaiskaja (keyboards, vocals), Vitaly Appow (bassoon, saxophone), Dimitry Maslovsky (bass), Nikolay "Gumberg" Semitko (drums), Kirill Krystia (violin) -- plus other musicians including Kirill Krystia's wife, Nadia (a vocalist, violinist, and cellist) -- recorded compositions penned by mainly by Podgaiskaja (with some by Appow), and in some cases, as in On Phenomena and Existences, featuring lyrics (sung by soprano Podgaiskaja and tenor Sergey Dolgushev) written by avant-garde Russian poet Alexander Vvedensky, who died after his arrest for alleged counterrevolutionary activity in the Soviet Union in 1941. Pieces from the Bondsman's Wings soundtrack were also recorded.

In February 2013, AltrOck released the results of the sessions, Five-Storey Ensemble's 11-track Not That City, dominated by Podgaiskaja compositions in a chamber classical and even operatic style; the liner notes explained (without ever explicitly mentioning Rational Diet by name) that their music had evolved beginning in early 2011 with Bondman's Wings and continuing with the Milosz pa Bialorusku project, and that a new group name was therefore deemed appropriate to mark the change in direction. Notably missing from the Five-Storey Ensemble lineup on the album was Rational Diet founding member guitarist Maxim Velvetov, with both acoustic and electric guitar in the group played by Andrey Evdokimov. Archestra guitarist Yuri Korogoda, violinist Kirill Krystia, and Nadia Krystia (featured only on cello here) were accorded guest status on several tracks. In addition to Podgaiskaja, Appow, Maslovsky, Semitko, and Dolgushev, the other members of Five-Storey Ensemble heard on Not That City included accordionist Alexander But'ko, oboist Natalja Malashkova, flutist Olga Polakova, violinist Anastasia Popova, and bassist Vyacheslav Plesko. According to the album's liner notes, the group included members of Fratrez, a Minsk-based quartet that balances improvisation with "archaic, folk, and modern composition."

As Five-Storey Ensemble were coming together and preparing for their formal debut, Kirill and Nadia Krystia were launching the other Rational Diet splinter group, the Archestra, a rockier, knottier, and more electric septet that performed Kirill Krystia compositions exclusively and whose members also included Appow and Semitko. Arches, the debut disc by the Archestra, was mastered by Udi Koomran and arrived in March 2013 as the inaugural release of the Soleil Mutant offshoot of the French Soleil Zeuhl label. As for Five-Storey Ensemble, they announced their own septet lineup -- Podgaiskaja, Appow, Popova, But'ko, Malashkova, Dolgushev, and double bassist Yury Naumenko -- for a scheduled appearance at the Gouveia Art Rock festival in Portugal the following month. ~ Dave Lynch, Rovi