Ole Lukkøye is an ethno-trance-psychedelic-prog-rock band from St. Petersburg, Russia (I think it was still Leningrad when Boris and Andrei split), created by Boris Bardash (keyboards, guitars, voices) and Andrei Lavrinenko (bass, percussion), who were also the founders of the Russian prog group Rainy Season [USSR/Russia/Lithuania] aka Sezon Dojdei or Sezon Dozhdei of the 80s and 90s.

Utterly mesmerizing, not unlike Korai Öröm, with the same kind of appeal as the Ozrics. I hear prog rock handling of ethnic themes from many parts of the ex-Soviet Union. What makes them stand-out, as with Korai Öröm, is the superb and relentless-trancy percussions, which could easily whip you into a wild-eyed dancing fiend. Western rhythms are mated to Tuvian throat-singing or Russian elegy. Sometimes the sound reaches beyond the exotic and turns dark. The overall feel, although there's significant variation, is that of shamanistic psychedelic trance rock. I spent 3 hours listening to several of their albums and I was left tired, but very relaxed. And, somehow, I turned my son into a cockroach.

My Russian is not good enough to understand lyrics when they are sung, but I am pretty sure that, most of the time, with the exception of a few Russian tracks, they are singing in an artificially created language that exists only in their minds. Talking about instruments these folks use some instruments that are totally unknown to me, even though, I have held strange ones in my hands over the years. As you will see below, the listing of instruments played by the personnel includes both the mundane and the esoteric. And, no, I don't know if it's a real wolf's real claw, ok?

When you hear the track "Fairy Tale" from Doo-Doo-Doo, you will know that this is not your father's Grimm Brothers' fairy tale. :)

The Swedes seem to dig them, because I see oodles of reviews in Swedish. And so does Archie Patterson from Eurock, although he calls their music "space rock." I don't think sooooo..... I, for one, was ready to tie some bones in my hair, once I finished listening to "Mana."

If you think that Korai Öröm are essential listening on a dark night or cloudy day, like I do, do yourself a favor get a hold of some of some Ole Lukkøye albums and take a trip into your favorite mindbender. Like Little Tragedies, few people outside the ex-Eastern Block have heard these folks.

Which is too bad, 'cause they are superb.

Personnel:

Boris Bardash - programming, keyboards, voice, guitars, rubab, green tube, darbuk, percussion
Andrey Lavrinenko - bass, rubab, djimbees, percussion
Frol - bassoon, ocarina, vargan, dwarf's scream, wolf's claws, tambourine
Yuri Lukyanchik - djimbees, darbuk, percussion, voice
Oleg Shar - darbuk
Sergei Radovsky - khomuz, kabassa, rattle
Evgeniya Radovskaya - voice
Alexander Kovalenko - drums
Vadim Kouzenkov - chimes, videobeam
Tanya Svaha - vocal, percussion (beginning with Flown...)

You can get the stuff from RWCDistribution: rwcdax.here.ru/DIST/eng/catalog.htm

[July 2010: While the RWCDistribution website is still available, I'm not sure if it's active as the latest date showing is 2000 -ed.]

• Zapara (1993/1996) -- (LP, ATR 70083/084 (P93-00511/512)/CD Exotica 96101)
• Toomze (1996) -- (CD, The Lollipop Shop LSD 1 (released also on MC))
• Doo-Doo-Doo or Remedy For A Dwarf (1998) -- (CD, OL 001 (Ltd edition of 999))
• Dream Of The Wind (1989-1991) (1999) -- (CD, privately released)
• Relax In Your Dream (2000) -- (CD, SolYd Records SLR 0225)
• Crystal Crow-Bar (2000) -- (CD, klangbad & Think Progressive CD 06280-2)
• Flown Across The Street (Live 2000/01) (2001) -- (CD, Caravan Records & Ole Lukkøye CAR 113)
• Horse Tiger (2002) -- (CD, Ole Lukkøye)

[In the time since this was first published, the band has released two more albums, 2006's Kumaneira and 2008's R9. This year - 2010 - they released a DVD collection Fairy Tales, collecting videos from 1990 through 2001 -ed. July 2010 {and in 2015 we can add that they released Petroglyphs (2010) and Dyatly (2015)}]

Links: Ole Lukkøye, Korai Öröm, Ozrics, Eurock

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Published on: 2005-07-16 (2393 reads)