Света Бень и Галя Чикис (Svetlana Ben and Galya Chikiss)

This is a powerful, reflective album, where the lyrics are just as important as the music.

The listener tears through fragments of the past, feeling almost physical pain from what was experienced and what wasn’t – it is like a group psychotherapy session, in the middle of which the terrible refrain sounds like a mantra: “I need to forget all this so as not to kill anyone.”

On the album “Приём!” (“Priyom!”, “Do You Hear Me?”), Svetlana Ben (with the help of Galya Chikiss) moves away from the cabaret genre familiar to her in the Serebryanaya Svadba (Silver Wedding) band: this record is difficult to fit into any stylistic boundaries. She lives her gloomy life, trying to comprehend this life and express what is very difficult to express.

If you want to understand and feel the inner world of a wounded Belarusian, then this record is absolutely necessary. Even if it’s hard to get the meaning of the lyrics, the music will point you in the right direction. (Aliaksandr Charnukha)

Stream “Приём!” (“Priyom!”) LP on Bandcamp.

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