Александр ДОЛЬСКИЙ  The Landscape

This disk, released in 1987 by Melodia, has lost nothing during last 12 years: same touch of melancholy, same philosophy, some nostalgia, a bit of righteous anger, Pit Seager, etc. Landscapes, portraits and sketches - all stuff that can be found in a studio of an amateur painter. Several ballads (more than in any other Dolsky's albums) seem to play a role of genre-painting. 'Ballad about ice-cream', Dolsky's reminiscences about his childhood, goes right after "1825, the 13th of December" - a stylized romance with inevitable "ah, light the candles". Still the landscapes are definitely Dolsky's pride, so the title of this release is absolutely appropriate. Exquisite Dolsky's guitar technique becomes boring on the 5th or 6th track, when the listener starts to think that he's doomed to an endless unvarying song. So at this point Dolsky makes a great move: he includes songs by J. Brassanse and Pit Seager in this album. However these songs can do nothing with the monotony of the release. Only the last track, 'Combinations and rearrangements', brings some diversity into rather tedious album. By the way, this song could have been even better with a different title - word games do not need explanations. "The more you live, the more you want to drink, the more you drink, the less you want to live".

Quote: 'Bard song, as well as poetry, demands intimacy and great labor of your soul. By the way, someone even called me 'a chamber aesthete'. As to popularity, it is significant only when you are young. When you get older, you pay less attention to it. (Alexander Dolsky. From an interview).