Foggy Notion: Soyuz

The third album from SOYUZ, "Force of the Wind", contains all the hallmarks, beauty and eccentricity of classic Brazilian recordings - think artists like Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, Burnier e Cartier, Arthur Verocai and others - but this album was not recorded 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 vocalist Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist Mikita Arlou and drummer Anton Nemahai. SOYUZ's previous albums have explored and reinterpreted the legacy of jazz-oriented, non-English pop music of the 20th century. For their third album, they have drawn more heavily on the música popular Brasileira of the 70s and built bridges to contemporary Belarus. Alex notes that from the moment he first came into contact with Brazilian music, he found a kind of concentrated emotion in it that felt like it was familiar to him from his childhood. This non-verbal emotion and connection between listener and musician can be found in the music, regardless of whether you understand the language in which the album was recorded.