Ten track compilation focused on the branching activities of legendary Ukrainian underground figure Svitlana Nianio and the endeavours of the Cologne-based artist & producer Guido Erfen in helping her music reach beyond the borders of her homeland. There's a wider network of musicians and contributors at work here, though it has to be seen as significant that all proceeds from the album are to be given to Nianio, a gesture that speaks to her centrality to the range of creativity represented. As part of the group Cukor Bila Smerť under her previous surname, Nianio's musical history begins in the decade before the music traced in this collection was made, which came about only when she'd moved to Cologne to work with dance theatre ensemble Pentamonia. It was then she engaged in a number of recording sessions with local artists, the fruits of which lead to what Stroom have pieced together here. Nainio was working with new people in new contexts, though the results do nonetheless feel born of one holistic artistic vision, her creative voice the one undimming beacon. In the album's first half, ethereal folk, and quixotic but often ghostly electronics warp and mutate in ways that feel both utterly singular and yet somehow make you wonder how this music escaped the gaze of a label like 4AD, easily at home alongside the likes of Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares and This Mortal Coil without really being anything other than itself. On the second side, the influence of Western electronic music seeps in a little more prominently, by no means ready for the dancefloor, but certainly keeping in mind what one might listen to once it had closed. Nainio mostly sings in her native tongue - indeed, her voice is the one true constant throughout - and it has to be seen as the enduring factor: yes, that has wider political and cultural significance of course (and perhaps requiring of wider discussion another time), though it also adds an unknown quality that endures, undiminished by the familiarity of overused tropes and understandings. The production certainly provides a timestamp - synth presets do age, and you can hear the wider influence of trip hop on many of the later tracks - but Nainio's voice feels outside of time, sometimes smoky, sometimes spectre-like, and pulling from multiple sources, be that her classical background, jazz, folk or a parallel afterhours club culture. There's more to discuss than space allows here, not least the contributions of everyone else involved (which are detailed in greater depth in the liner notes), but in short Aftermath and Transitions functions not just as a document of a moment in time and the brilliance of a single individual, but of the value in migrating ideas and polyglot possibilities of shared perspectives. Amazing that this existed in the first place, better still it's not been forgotten.
FFO: Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares, This Mortal Coil, Svilana Nianio, Cukor Bila Smerť, NSRD
