Album Review:Kedr Levanskiy’s Brings Out The “Ariadna” In All of Us
Kedr Levanskiy’s Ariadna makes me want to grab a bunch of Club Kids and join a Drag Dance competition. It is filled the voguing sensuality of an underground scene filled with glamorous youth and unabashed fantasies. If that image does not makes you want to say “YES! Ariadna!” do not read any further because this kween is about to recognize a queen.
We all need albums that make you want to strut. My readers know that I believe every album has an emotional compartment, of which Kedr Levanskiy’s’ Ariadna would be filed under, “FIERCE”. Livanskiy was born in a shifting, critical time for Russia; when the Soviet Union had fallen, and a giant nation faced the meaning of “reconstruction”. I mention her upbringing not just because you will hear Russian and English lyrics, but also because the idea of reinvention pervades through Ariadna. “Sunrise Stop”, “Mermaid”, and “Love & Cigarettes” have romantic synth-waves that tussle in the air like flags in celebration. Thus, my image of “Drag Ball” is not off. Similar to Ariadna, it is a place of dreamy youth basking in poetic images, of which Ariadna almost feels like an entity. She is dancing with her friends on the collapse of an old world, while excitedly creating the “new one” she swears will be better. That ambiance of hopefulness, ironically, comes from the record’s downtempo. Levanskiy treats a bassline like a heartbeat that has been buried in a disco-ball; for all the shine that stems from the glittering, spinning keys that surround it, there is a feeling that something bigger, more important thumps beneath.
Again, I cannot avoid the rhythmic electricity and “reconstruction” images of this record because they are so deliciously placed. Moreover, Levanskiy’s voice does nothing to outshine the beats of her album. If anything, she just appears like an added instrumental in tracks such as, “Your Name” and “Sad One”. Yet, I say this completely complimentary. It is subtle genius because Levanskiy mutually elaborates that her voice and sound are one, and like Ariadna they were made to be creatively unique. For More Information Kedr Levanskiy and to Buy Ariadna on September 8 Click Here.
