SOYUZ’s third album, Force of the Wind, holds all the trademarks, beauty, and eccentricities of classic Brazilian recordings – think artists such as Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, Burnier e Cartier, Arthur Verocai et al. – but this record wasn’t made in Brazil and is in fact a brand-new release.
SOYUZ (which translates as “union”) is a creative collective from Minsk, Belarus, led by composer, arranger, and singer Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist Mikita Arlou, and drummer Anton Nemahai. SOYUZ’s previous albums explored and reimagined the legacy of jazz-oriented, non-English-language pop music of the 20th century. For their third album, there is a stronger focus influenced by 70s Música popular Brasileira, building bridges from it to present-day Belarus. Alex notes that from the moment he first encountered Brazilian music, he found in it a kind of concentrated emotion that felt as if it were familiar to him from his childhood. This non-verbal emotion and connection between the listener and musician echoes in the music, regardless of understanding of the language the album is recorded in.
SOYUZ’s new single “Калі ты запытаеш” is out on November 22 via Mr Bingo. A pop ballad sung in their native Belarusian language, with contributions from Biel Basile (O Terno) on drums and Anthony Ferraro (Toro Y Moi, Astronauts, etc.) on synth.