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К​р​а​й (Krai)

by Olga Bell

supported by
Art Fin
Art Fin thumbnail
Art Fin This Moscow-born, Alaska-raised, Brooklyn-dwelling singer/ keyboardist/composer has dabbed into many genres over the past decade like art pop, synth pop, electronica, classical piano and even a cabaret cover of Bjork. She has been a touring musician with Dirty Projectors and Chairlift. I never expected this concept album of Russian folk-inspired songs though. She's a consistently interesting leftfield artist. RIYL: My Brightest Diamond, Bat For Lashes Favorite track: Altai Krai.
Rebecca
Rebecca thumbnail
Rebecca мне очень нравится! это как русский бьорк, или может быть золя иисус.
DEVIN HURD
DEVIN HURD thumbnail
DEVIN HURD You know all those vocal tracks you love so much from the Dirty Projectors? This is a concentrated dose and it's damn cool.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a gatefold ecopak, with a 16-page booklet. Booklet includes all lyrics in Russian and English along with a map of Russia highlighting the nine krais featured on the album. Cover lettering art by Jessica Hische.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Край (Krai) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Comes with double foil-stamped sleeve and a booklet with all lyrics in Russian and English as well as a map of Russia highlighting the krais featured on the album. Printed on red, 140-160g vinyl. Co-released by New Amsterdam Records and One Little Indian Records. Cover lettering art by Jessica Hische.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Край (Krai) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    edition of 500  22 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $17 USD or more 

     

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Altai Krai 04:25
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Perm Krai 04:35
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about

Coming April 29, 2014. Pre-order the album here (vinyl, digital, and CD).

New Amsterdam Records is pleased to announce Russian-born, New York-based composer/producer Olga Bell's new album Krai, available world-wide on April 29, 2014. Inspired by the lesser-known corners of Bell's homeland and written entirely in her native Russian, Krai is Bell's second LP and first large-scale composition. Lead single "Perm Krai", about a region in Russia's interior and its 16th century Cossack inhabitants, is available for stream and embed here. Pitchfork premiered "Perm Krai," noting that the track "crawls with tightly compressed activity, all of it separated by clear lines." All formats of Krai are available for pre-order directly from New Amsterdam here, including a limited-edition red vinyl 12" LP packaged in double foil-stamped sleeves--a collaboration with London-based One Little Indian Records.

Krai (край) is the Russian word for edge, limit, frontier or hinterland. Present-day Russia is divided into a myriad of 'federal subjects', including nine krais. In this capacity the term is a political designation, like 'territory', but for the earliest Russians these places represented both the promise and terror of the vast unknown.

While much has been written about Russia's major cities, Olga Bell's Krai is concerned with the rest of the map: the wilderness, the towns, the inhabitants and their stories. From the Cossack melodies of Krasnodar Krai in the West to the Chukchi drumming of Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East, Krai is a journey across the Eurasian landmass in forty minutes.

Scored for cello, electric guitar, bass, pitched drums, mallet percussion and electronics, Krai features a vocal ensemble of six Olgas (four female, two 'male') singing entirely in Russian. The texts of Krai are a mix of traditional, liturgical and original poetry Olga created with her mother, a former Radio Moscow broadcaster. Cossack fables, Orthodox chant and politically charged limericks collide in a dizzying mosaic of avant-garde and vernacular soundscapes.

Krai was recorded at Machines With Magnets, a Rhode Island studio where many like-minded musicians (Battles, Lightning Bolt) have created groundbreaking work. In February, the work was premiered to a sold-out Walker Art Center.

Born in Moscow and raised in Alaska, Olga Bell is an American composer, producer and performer based in Brooklyn. A prodigious classical pianist as a child and teenager, Bell graduated from the New England Conservatory at age 21 before moving to New York City to pursue electronic composition and songwriting. The past nine years have seen Bell's steady rise from the city's open mics to performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

Bell makes original music, remixes and videos under her own name. As half of Nothankyou, Bell makes electronic music with British musician Tom Vek. In 2012 Bell joined Dirty Projectors for the band's Swing Lo Magellan cycle and remains a keyboardist and singer with the band today.

www.olgabell.com
www.newamrecords.com

credits

released April 29, 2014

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New Amsterdam Records New York

Community-driven and artist-friendly label based in NYC.

"Few organizations have done more to shape 21st-century music in New York City" – Time Out New York

"emblematic of an emerging generation" – The New York Times

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