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''Heart on Snow'' is the twelfth solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter
Marc Almond
Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He ...
. It was released by Blue Star Music, in conjunction with
XIII BIS Records XIII BIS Records is an independent record label based in Paris, France, that releases music in a variety of genres.
Artists
XIII BIS has issued releases by the following artists:
* Adagio
* Marc Almond
* Alain Chamfort
* Ray Charles
* Lloyd Cole
* ...
, on 21 October 2003.
Background
An article by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
describes how Almond "went to
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
to interpret traditional
Russian romance
Russian romance (russian: рома́нс ''románs'') is a type of sentimental art song with hints of Gypsy influence that was developed in Imperial Russia by such composers as Nikolai Titov (1800-1875), Alexander Alyabyev (1787–1851), Alexa ...
songs" to make what "may have become his most ambitious album so far".
Almond mostly sang
cover versions
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
of traditional Russian songs, including a number from the Russian romance canon, and collaborated with a number of Russian artists on the album, such as
Alla Bayanova
Alla Nikolayevna Bayanova (russian: Алла Николаевна Баянова; 18 May 1914 – 30 August 2011) was a Russian Romance singer sometimes compared with Édith Piaf for her simple yet dramatic style of performance.
Bayanova was bor ...
and
Lyudmila Zykina
Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina (russian: link=no, Людми́ла Гео́ргиевна Зы́кина; 10 June 1929 – 1 July 2009) was a national folk singer of Russia.
She was born in Moscow and joined the Pyatnitsky Choir in 1947. Her surna ...
.
The album was released as a standard
jewel case
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
A ...
CD and a limited edition CD book in a slipcase containing a 44-page book with extensive background notes to all of the songs.
The single "Gone But Not Forgotten" was released from the album in September 2003 with two tracks ("Gosudaryunia" and "Just One Chance") and the video for the title track.
Critical reception
Reviews for ''Heart on Snow'' were mixed. Dorian Lynskey in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' describes ''Heart on Snow'' as "a labour of love for which it's hard to feel much affection" and as lacking "the sly humour of
Soft Cell
Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The duo consists of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit version of "Tainted Love" and their plat ...
and his best solo work" yet admires the "boldness and integrity in making an album that only uses Russian musicians".
The review in
Uncut
Uncut may refer to:
* ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship
* ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997
* '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...
states that Almond keeps his versions of the material "respectful which, despite the lack of Russian wildness, makes it (''Heart on Snow'') all the more moving".
Paul Taylor in the ''
Manchester Evening News
The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 201 ...
'' describes the album as "a cunning mixture of smooth, westernised productions and
balalaika
The balalaika (russian: link=no, балала́йка, ) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the thir ...
-plucking, raw Russky folk stylings" and states that "anyone remotely broad-minded about their music would find this a joy".
.
A Russian ''
Komsomolskaya Pravda
''Komsomolskaya Pravda'' (russian: link=no, Комсомольская правда; lit. "Komsomol Truth") is a daily Russian tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper, founded on 13 March 1925.
History and profile
During the Soviet era, ...
'' praised the interpretation of
Gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
romances ("Two Guitars", "The Glance of Your Dark Eyes"), described "Oh, My Soul" and "Luna" as "clash of
decadence
The word decadence, which at first meant simply "decline" in an abstract sense, is now most often used to refer to a perceived decay in standards, morals, dignity, religious faith, honor, discipline, or skill at governing among the members of ...
" and proclaimed "Gosudarynia" as the best track on the album.
[
]
Track listing
Note – there is a discrepancy with the titles of tracks 13 and 19 between the liner notes, "Glance From Your Dark Eyes"; and the track listing, "The Glance of Your Dark Eyes".
Personnel
In addition to artists credited in the track listing:
*Marc Almond
Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He ...
– vocals, translation adaptation
*Martin Watkins – piano, original keyboards, arrangements
*Andrei Samsonov – keyboards
*Oleg Belov – keyboards, grand piano
*Mikhail Aptekman – grand piano
*Sergey Erdenko – violin
*Georgij Osmolovskij – violin
*Aliosha Bezlepkin – guitar
*Vladimir Kudryavtsev – double bass
*Grigory Voskoboynikov – double bass
*Albert Potapkin – drums
*Garij Bagdasaryan – drums
*Oleg Sakmarov – flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
*Andrej Vikharev – percussion
*Sergej Shurakov – accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
*Kirill Kravtsov – cello
*Alexandre Kiahidi – trumpet
*Dmitrij Kuzmin – tuba
The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...
*Karin Brown – French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
*Viktor Bastrakov – guitar
*Maria Shurakova – mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
*Vladimir Miller – bass vocal
*Anatoli Sobolev – conductor
*The St Petersburg Higher Naval Engineering Choir – choir
*Gardemarin Youth Choir – choir
*Julia Khutoretskaya – choir leader
References
{{Authority control
2003 albums
Marc Almond albums