A collaboration project of two extremely talented musicians, a vocalist and a saxophonist, “In the Beginning” was directly inspired and affected by a road trip Maria and Kira took to the southern borderlands of Estonia.
After finding an empty Russian Orthodox Church originally constructed in 1873, they decided to record an album in it. In their own words, the result should not be misunderstood as a literal historical document, but rather as a collage inspired by the Catholic Church’s deep and dark history, a reflection of the various regimes’ annihilation of cultural traditions from the local indigenous past, and a quest for forgiveness.
The music includes hypnotic, chant-like presentations of tales inspired by sacral orthodox hymns, in a merger of Estonian folklore and western cultural influence. It’s an album filled with serene choral moments and jazz interludes which all together create quite a surreal mixture.
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Stream “In the Beginning” on Soundcloud.
Maria Faust on Facebook, Soundcloud. Kira Skov on Facebook, Soundcloud.