Soyuz: KROK LP

Despite immense challenges, Soyuz have delivered a career-defining album in "KROK". "Krok" means "step" in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his band this word comes with a lot of meaning. It's the title and theme that ran throughout Soyuz's fourth album, reflecting the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The result is nine songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very distant at the same time. Though primarily recorded in Brazil, "KROK" is not a Brazilian or MPB album. It blends the band's Eastern European roots with jazz, folk, and global influences. The genre of the music is hardly identifiable: there are folk ballads and jazz-driven pop compositions covered in lush and often dissonant string and woodwind arrangements where each note is placed with care and meaning behind it.