Kosaya Gora
Hometown: Moscow, Russia
Album: Kosogor, out now via The Flenser
RIYL: Open Interpretation. Friends. Feeling.
Translated to mean “oblique mountain,” Kosaya Gora and their immediately arresting brand of ethereal indie folk are entirely up for interpretation. Featuring two excellent experimental electronic artists making a full album together for the first time, Kosogor is truly a different listen with each spin. In one, it’s a walk through a desolate European ghost town, chanting ancient melodies that echo from barren buildings. In another, it’s the call of the wild to a verdant Russian forest, where a bonfire and ring of friends plan to lull you into a calming state. In my third listen, it’s a siren song beckoning me to a “safe” shore. If haunted yet beautiful, folky yet focused, and experimental yet catchy music lights up your eardrums, join the drum circle.
As Kedr Livanskiy is quick to note, the pairing with Flaty was delightful:
“It’s a great happiness to find a person who would feel you in music. Working together you become bolder, and sometimes some hidden sides are revealed. Working alone, one does not have the courage to discover those selves. Personally, working with flaty as an artist, as a musician I become wider and more multifaceted. I just get incredible pleasure from the process, an ease that is difficult for me to achieve when working alone with myself, like in a duet you reflect less or something, and it’s easier to surrender to the full process of making music. Working with flaty is the greatest pleasure for me.”
On trying to figure out what they intended thematically for this project, being vague was kind of the point, according to Flaty:
“For me music is far from meaning. Everyone has his own understanding which could be influenced by personal cultural background and imagination. Music is another dimensional language which can express what thoughts and words can’t. So I personally have no specific direct message to the listener. You could walk your own way with it, and time will change expressions; I am really sure of that.”
Photo courtesy of Kosaya Gora.
