Kontakt Audio and Infinite Fog Productions proudly presents the 25th anniversary reissue of the one of most unique albums on avantgarde/neoclassic music - Ihor Tsymbrovsky - Come, Angel.
Recorded in 1995 in Ukraine and released in 1996 just as a small run on cassette on Polish label Koka Records, the album without any promotion little by little became legendary and madly wanted by many fans all around the world. And from the first seconds, you can hear why it is so. Pretty hard to explain what songs play Ihor, moreover that would be senseless. "Come, Angel" is one of those albums that are so unique that takes you in a vacuum of verbal forms in an attempt to describe the record. In a few words, this is definitely very intimate and deeply emotional music with an absolutely incredible voice. The first associations could forward you to Antony Hegarty from Antony And The Johnsons, Marc Almond, Arthur Russell, Baby Dee, Bjork, some of Yann Tiersen maybe. Experienced listener familiar with these great artist knows that all of them are inimitable and Ihor Tsymbrovsky is totally inimitable as well.
In 2016 well-known German label Offen Music published 3 tracks from the album "Come, Angel" which brought a lot of attention to Ihor's music. This time we're excited to announce the first full album reissue on CD, Double vinyl, and tapes. Besides the full version of the album, you'll find an exclusive bonus song from the cult compilation "Music The World Does Not See" - Nefryt Records 2000.
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"For me, music is a certain way of cultural survival. Here I do not set myself theoretical problems or experiments.
The connotations of life are important: rhythms, melodies, their connection with language, poetry, real life, virtual or imaginary space. It is very important to me how the recitation of work sounds, how consonant and vowel sounds dissolve in singing, how they combine musically. I understand sound space as a field of my interpretations, preferences, priorities, and I do not use direct imitation. If I hear a melody or a musical phrase, and it is fixed in my memory, later I extract it in my own interpretation, as already formed by this field. In art, the goal is in the work itself, not outside it. For me, the expression "To be is to create a new reality" is another winged reality." - Ihor Tsymbrovsky
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«I don’t remember much when recalling what happened over 20 years ago. I met Ihor thru my older brother who was studying architecture at the polytechnical institute of Lviv. I believe Ihor was studying construction or maybe architecture too. I was much younger than Ihor and already managed a few pop artists. I used to spend most of the time in Berlin. Once my bro played me a demo tape by Ihor, and I got really excited and asked my brother to introduce me to him. I proposed to go to a studio. At that time there were probably only 2 studios in Lviv. We recorded everything in a single day, all 100% live, no edits, nothing. Just some crazy delay — Ihor liked it sounding a bit «dubby“. The whole session was pure magic. I just told our engineer «touch nothing now and relax». «Come Angel» — we recorded it twice as there was a malfunction of a tape recorder. I believe I paid something like 100 US$ for everything. That was actually a lot — my rent for a 1 room apartment in the very center was around 25 bucks a month. First, we released it ourselves on cassettes with b&w sleeves copied on the xerox. I met a crazy guy in Berlin (Gogo was his nickname). He was already working with some ex-East Block artists and offered a mini-tour in Berlin and the area around it. We came to Berlin and played a few gigs, really strange venues, mainly bars in squats, but it was lots of fun. I remember a couple of young ladies literally losing conscience along with Ihor’s high frequencies. Financially that was of course a flop. We had been cleaning windows a few days to buy return tickets…». - Vitali Bardetski (Producer)
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"Tsymbrovsky - an architect, musician, a poet, an artist; one of the most underestimated musicians in Ukraine's artistic world. Many critics pulled their hair out trying to get to the bottom of Tsymbrovsky's music. It has been inspired by jazz, minimal, modern, ethnic, and meditation music.
Tsymbrovsky is not a virtuoso, however, he creates whole worlds with his astonishing falsetto. Although Cymbrovsky's music is simple it is made of many elements. Filled with magic and unusual sensitivity and warmth it can be therapeutic for the listener. This is that kind of music, which can be listened to many times - in a different way each time." - Koka Records
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"Igor Tsymbrovsky's only album "Come Angel" (1995) still remains perhaps the most bizarre phenomenon in Ukrainian music since independence. The story of its author is a vivid example of cultural amnesia. In the pre-Internet era, Tsymbrovsky was a prominent figure in the Ukrainian underground, performed on the "Red Route", went on tour in Germany. However, he left a minimum of evidence of his activity and became a silent legend for a few. We talked to Igor to find out where he came from and where he was going.The album "Come Angel" is eight compositions performed with a falsetto to the accompaniment of a piano. (Tsymbrovsky's falsetto is a legacy of the Lviv Dudaryk choir, where he sang as a child.) It would seem that it could be easier. But, despite such ascetic tools, Tsymbrovsky managed to create a phenomenon unique to Ukrainian culture. Some people compare him to Benjamin Clementine and Anthony Hegarty, but no comparison will be exhaustive. The lyrics of the songs attract special attention: two of them were written by Tsymbrovsky himself, the others demonstrate his remarkable literary knowledge. Here and Guillaume Apollinaire, and Mikhail Semenko, and even less obvious poets, such as Nikolai Vorobyov or Attila Joseph.
The young performer's first performance took place in 1987 in the club of the Forestry Institute. It is quite symbolic that this room used to be a Jesuit church because such a chamber environment suits his songs about angels much better than the noise of big festivals. However, there were also many festivals in Tsymbrovsky's career: in 1989, Chorna Rada and Chervona Ruta, in 1991, Kharkiv's Nova Scena and Ukrainian Nights in Gdansk. Igor calls his first performances musical performances and notes that they sounded completely different. Unfortunately, we will never know exactly how.
Tsymbrovsky's first and only album was recorded only in 1995 at a Lviv studio. The event was initiated by Vitaliy Bardetsky (promoter, also known as the editor-in-chief of the New Rock and Roll magazine and art director of the late Kyiv Khlib club)." - Amnesia
