Сергей КАЛУГИН  NIGREDO

Tarot card: The Magician. Sergey Kalugin is a virtuoso in guitar technique, he uses folk-tunes and flamenco rhythms in his music, his texts are full of occult terminology, his voice is hypnotizing, so you wanted to get a mystical insight? Here it is, come and get it. Coolness of the night wind, dim light of the broken mirrors, resurrection of the dead Casanovas, dark moon, dark silk, bats and fish and sudden grasp: "there is nothing more beautiful than death". Scary, morbid tale. It could have seemed a parody if not for the gloomy seriousness, elegance, even arrogance.

Tarot card: The Hermit. Nigredo means the first stage of Great Act in alchemy practice. This is the first step on the road of learning. And the first serious work by Sergey Kalugin. Olga Arefieva as back-vocalist, qualified arrangements, the patter of "Casanova Dance", complicated text constructions. Something unique in Russian music, something peculiar, almost a dead-end. Where could Kalugin move after this? This way, please: to Grebenshikov-styled blues and rock-n-rolls.

Tarot card: The Fool, or just a joker. Yuri Naumov wrote to Kalugin after listening to Nigredo: "I tell you: you are no Zaratustra, you are no Don Juan!" Kalugin looks sometimes like a God, sometimes like a God's fool, sometimes he's a demon, sometimes - an Orthodox. Then suddenly you realize: he's no God, he's no demon. He just is. And his album has a bit of everything in it, but there's nothing concrete. No implication, no indignation: text only. That's the first step to the Great Act.

You deal. Your lead.