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Nicephorus a.k.a. Nikita Nikiforov is a young scientist from Russia. During working hours he searches for ways to beat atherosclerosis, but the rest of the time he devotes to the search for beautiful sounds.
Being an experimenter by his nature, Nicephorus explores new horizons of electronic music. Ideas to fuse proved by time beauty of classical instruments and mesmerizing brutality of dubstep occupied Nikita for years. First experiments with VST instruments, violin recordings, samples and all those “semi-finished products ready to use” did not give the desired outcome. Final sound wasn’t satisfying. It lacked individuality and expressiveness. So Nicephorus started to seek for live sounds.
In the Assembly hall of the Mysnikov’s Institute of Cardiology where Nikita was studying for a Ph.D. was a grand piano on a scene. He managed to make an arrangement with the administration of the Institute that if he gets the instrument fixed he can play it as long as he wants. Luckily the grand piano was in good condition, just slightly out of tune. Nikita invited a piano tuner who revived the instrument in just a couple of hours. When Nikita pressed the keys of the piano he couldn’t believe his ears. The sound was so perfect. Just on another level than sampled one. Nikita couldn’t get enough of it. He was playing it all his spare time.
Like a magnet Nicephorus attracted talented people who embraced his ideas of incorporation live recorded instruments into electronic music. Elena Liubimova kindly responded to Nikita’s request on a local forum for musicians. Nikita quickly fell in love with dreamy and emotional melodies that Lena extracted from violin and alto. Timur Nekrasov helped to give a jazz touch with his genius on sax. And the cherry on the cake is crazy beat played by Oleg Shuntsov.
Immersed in the recording of live sounds Nicephorus never lost an opportunity to record beauty that sounds in hearts of people all around the globe. Street musicians also could not hide from his microphone, be they at the town waterfront, performing in some restaurant, playing in the alcove or pretty much anywhere. Nikita’s enthusiasm reached international level when he managed to record Czech iconic street artist Jiri Wehle during a visit to Prague for a scientific congress.
It gets worse and worse as it goes on. Inanimate objects and nature sounds also became subject of Nikita’s attention. For the song of the nightingale, for example, he had to hunt. To do this, Nicephorus made several ventures early in the morning to the forest outside Moscow, carrying a bucky construction of a laptop, an external sound card and a microphone with a stand. The bubble of the sea, a patter of rain, leaves rustling in the wind, an old piano squeaking and a lot of other beautiful sounds were caught it in Nikita’s microphone and found its place in his music, creating a cozy and warm atmosphere.
It all resulted in an emergence of the album “Elephants are already drowned” which unites many musical styles such as jazz, trip-hop, downtempo, dubstep and ethno. Guys put their souls and hearts in to this work. That’s why it sounds so distinctive and soulful. Dive in to an atmospheric journey with a jazz band through the restless sea of imagination of a Russian scientist.
released October 31, 2018
Featuring:
Stringed instruments – Elena Lyubimova
Drums – Oleg Shuntsov
Wind instruments – Timur Nekrasov
Ethnic instruments – Timofey Lebedev
Guru – Evgenii Borodachev
Mastering:
Adam Straney (BreakPoint Mastering)