Auktyon

I don't think I'd ever written about this band in my previous blog. What do they do? Art rock? I'm not sure. What is art rock, anyway? Auktyon, however, sound just a little bit like Tuxedomoon mixed with the local mental home's rock band. Their new album - the first "regular" studio album in about 14 years - is due in April and is participated in by Rain Dogs-era Tom Waits guitarist Marc Ribot, avant-garde saxophonist (and not only) Ned Rothenberg, John Medeski, klezmerdude Frank London and kontrabassist Vladimir Volkov, who played with Sergey Kuryokhin and many others and has collaborated with band leader Leonid Fyodorov (website's in Russian only) on a number of other recordings. What I am giving you today is two tracks from the 2002 release Eto Mama (It's Mum), "Fa-Fa (Eto Mama)" and "O Pogode" ("About the Weather"). The record was a pseudo-live collection of older songs and a couple of newer ones, not just capturing the distinct live sound of the band which developed over the years but also putting lots of songs in a newer musical perspective, employing more wind instruments etc. Plus you get a track from the forthcoming album where you can hear Ribot and Volkov alright, called "Zhdat'" ("Wait"); this track came up somewhere on the net a couple of weeks ago and I'm not sure whether it's the final version, but it's a fine teaser. The quality of all three files is 128 kbps, pitifully, but there you go. Enjoy.


Download Auktyon - Fa-Fa (Eto Mama) (128 kbps, 8,78 mb)
Download Auktyon - O Pogode (128 kbps, 5,39 mb)
I don't know where you can buy "Eto Mama" outside Russia, but it was released by Misteriya Publishing, which is part of Misteriya Zvuka, who have the distribution rights to Sony BMG Russia's production. They also have a "Sony BMG top 50" on their site. So be careful there, you know, what with the RIAA and stuff.

Download Auktyon - Zhdat' (128 kbps, 3,44 mb)
Stand by at the official english site to buy the album when it's released.