Moya

Moya - Die Hard (2008)
Recently there has been a lot of electronic and rock artists who dabble in the orchestral/classical domain without the least bit of sincerity, whose vain hopes are that their listeners have never listened to any compositions from say: the Baroque period, or the Renaissance era's choral music, which to be fair, was a long time ago.

Here enters Moya, who couldn't be more forward about his influences, many of which are laid bare even on the front page of his website. Both classical artists such as Mozart and Antonín Dvořák are mentioned alongside recent contemporary artists such as Mono and Godspeed! You Black Emperor, from whom the name Moya sprang .

It's a safe bet to say though, that Moya doesn't merely borrow concepts from such greats as Mozart or Bach. Instead, he creates an entire new set of sound combinations which are creatively unique to Moya's approach.

Moya almost single handedly proves that Russians are indeed the most intelligent people in the world. Just quite how he manages to make the duo of guitar and piano (all but) the sole direction of his work - thankfully leaving out the at times awkward drum additions from his earlier work - How it never overstays its welcome, especially in this modern very rhythm orientated world is a fascination in itself, but underneath lies a solid founding for his ideas, as a whole grabbing from his sources, such as the already mentioned classical composers.

With these largely differing influences Moya expresses himself as someone with a great understanding of music, both of its practice and the way it can affect peoples emotions with the spine tingling effects produced on classical piece “Hyundai (Piano Sonata)” which starts out life as a sole piano composition but marvellously gives rise to a very sixties like guitar riff. At some points, the whole of the song segues into internal conflict, like a cave crashing in on itself, only to fall back gracefully into the piano sonata which introduced the piece, bringing to the surface a remarkable feeling of cadence.

The music is then taken down weird tangents as if bringing sense and law to what is an odd meter-less guitar arrangement via "Light On Bald Mountain". It starts off as though somebody had just picked up the guitar after being separated from it for many a year, a person who begins to play a simple rhythm on it which despite starting out relatively unfocused, gradually picks up into a more discernible racket until it breaks into forward and retreating waves of interesting noise patterns.

Showing up his eighteenth century influences more so is "Stabat Mater" which - however it happened to be produced - is another piano orientated piece sounding like it was recorded in an old rickety mansion, with wise dampening effects on the Grand piano.

What shouldn't be left unspoken is the apparent amount of comedy which, among other tracks, can be seen in "Alcoholics' Song" which one would imagine able to bring a smile to any respectable-man/bum with the use of its contrastingly out of tune guitars, while still managing to affect the listener emotionally.

Equally something which should not be denied of Moya is that on his latest attempt we have a wonderfully poised expedition through the creative world of the Russian artist's solo work weaving, as though he was some master craftsman, delicate strands of piano melodies straight through the middle of the often boding, fuzzy and distilling guitar.

The ease at which Moya manages to combine supposedly contrary musical ideas and use the clashing attributes of each, to his own advantage should make "Die Hard" stand out from the crowd if it were to find its audience. Although the guitar/piano combination may not suit all tastes, what must be emphasised is that this fabulously put together piece of work has been released by the net label Lost Children and is completely free of charge, not even requiring a single personal detail before you download. So, what have you got to lose?
(8/10) - strangeglue.com