Parisian meta-post-rock outfit Lost in Kyiv finally return with their long-awaited third album and most astounding work to date, 'Persona'.
Raw and driven, yet oozing with thick synth textures and a great sense of melancholy and drama, 'Persona' sees Lost in Kyiv further expand their own idiosyncratic take on cinematic, contemporary post rock. "The main challenge with this record was how to write more direct and shorter post-rock tracks with the same intensity as our previous, longer compositions", guitarist Maxime Ingrand explains, "and also finding the right balance between traditional post-rock, the addition of synths and machines and the texts for the film".
Lost in Kyiv have always been one of the few truly suggestive post-rock bands: they do lack a vocalist, and yet their music is prosaic, cinematic reflections and stories.
Written and conceptualised to be reflections on humanity in a fictional futuristic context where artificial intelligence is fully implemented into everyday life, 'Persona' does not impose any sort of political or moral position on the topic: Lost in Kyiv create fictional characters and let them talk, breathe, cry and live through intimate stories and cathartic experiences on a screen behind the band, while they perform live…
Post-rock has ever since it's beginnings shown an affinity to the use of speech samples, and has borrowed voices from movies or speeches by celebrities like Iggy Pop as in Mogwai’s "Punk Rock" or random lost souls as in GY!BE’s "Blaise Bailey Finnegan III". Lost in Kyiv take this tradition to the next level, by writing their own genuine storyline, and making their own movie to their album. Ever since 2016’s 'Nuit noir', the band has recorded their own spoken words, as opposed to plagiarizing from movies. During their live performances, these voiceovers are synchronized with video projections showing actors who interpret the different voices on screen. An inverted soundtrack of sorts, or musical fiction, always tinged with realism in a striking and emotionally intense way.
LP black vinyl in a standard sleeve
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Persona
2. Lifelooper
3. The Incomplete
4. XM3216
5. Pygmalion
Side B:
6. Mindfiles
7. Psyche
8. Thumos
9. Mecasocialis
