Usvyaty: Russian Music from Pskov Region in Modern and Archival Recordings

This is a curiosity. We get relatively few recordings from Russia and as the title says, these are field recordings from the village of Usvyaty in the Pskov region of northwest Russia – actually close to the Belarus border. The first seven tracks are of garmon (button accordion) player Ekaterina Trusova made in 2021. They are instrumental versions of folk songs offering simple, but charming, melodies with chordal accompaniment. You can imagine them being sung with gusto late in the evening with vodka and zakuski.

The other two artists were recorded by Trusova herself in the 1990s on a cassette recorder. There are six unaccompanied songs sung by Sofya Rubisova and, bizarrely, four songs from Trusova’s father, Dmitry Kozintsev, also a garmon player. Here the tape has apparently turned inside out creating a strange effect, which also sounds like there’s another recording being played on the other side. I can’t fathom the reason for including these. I’m pleased that recordings of Russia’s traditional music are being released, but maybe voice and accordion or small ensembles might be more rewarding. This is only for specialists.