Oyme - "Mastorava vol.1" [2023]

Artist: Oyme

Title: Mastorava vol.1

Genre: Folk, World Music

Country: Russia

Release date: 2023

Track List: 

1. North Tolava
2. Vaya
3. Kalyadki
4. Borazh velesj
5. Shakshata
6. South Vedyava
7. Vai, Mashura!
8. Matyryanj Aldanyasj
9. Wings of love
10. Kelu 
11. Mastorava
12. Genesis (bonus track) 

And finally, here's the Erzyan/Mokshan folk band that was mentioned on my blog more often than any other - Oyme, presenting the first part of their concept album "Mastorava", released in late 2023 and summing up more than 10 years of their creative work. The album is supposed to consist of 4 parts reflecting the traditional number of directions and nature elements, of which two are present on this volume. While at its core it's modern folk/world music inspired by Deep Forest (as I've probably already mentioned, they did a collaboration with Eric Mouquet of DF a few years ago), their music is very rich in various influences including even rap (yes I admit that rap is everywhere nowadays and I'm annoyed by it as much as the next person, but they did it only as a little experiment in one track that turned out surprisingly good) and lyrics in 4 different languages. Their best-known song "Vaya", based on traditional Erzyan bridal songs, is what I'd call industrial folk:

The "Oyme Fest" festival, showcasing their work of collecting the folklore of Mordovia, took prace a month ago, and included an ethno-fashion show and a premiere of a documentary film. It was the 4th time I've seen Oyme performing live, and for the second time I've met their frontwoman Ezhevika Spirkina (who was already mentioned on my blog quite a few times as well), who was happy to see me too. Not long ago she has married Andrey Chegodaev, the leader of an international 80's style hard rock revival band The Blackfires, who organized the festival together with her. Shout-out also to the other vocalists of Oyme: Ksenia Kudinova, Larissa Zybkina, and Yulia Avrutskaya (who joined the band relatively recently) and all the accompanying musicians including the drummer Ilya Yagoda who was wearing a Myrkur t-shirt during the concert :3 By the way, right now Oyme are performing in Moscow, and even if I'm there, I hope I'll see them live many times more in the future: