The depths of the City. Suggestive images of the depth seen from the bridge seem to be floating when we look down into the river which introduces us to "The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars". A person looking down from the bridge at a certain moment looks up and stares at the City. What they see is however as uncertain, unsettling and full of fear as the previous "looking." Further steps in this City “held back” by a look (“motionless” as the water) are similar to looking in the deep from the bridge. We see the City through water. We can hear echoes, sharpened and muffled by it. We do not touch the objects in the city, it is not possible, just the sounds coming from them, after each step we take. The City spreads over the entire environs or appears to be completely covered, as if under a heavy cloth; despite that it is still audible (To Tell or not to Tell). Or we can say the City is not present in its material form, it is merely based on the construction of sounds. Physicalness is being withdrawn (They Wouldn’t Understand). The City is a single person, who is being passed by. It reflects in that person’s face, look, sometimes it is not what we would like to see (Столя́рный переулок). The last piece renders the sounds we ourselves make after we have passed through the City and during passing through. Whether we want it or not, we have already found ourselves in the City and it will remain in us regardless of the fact that we walk out. Thanks for this non obvious journey, Julie.
I would never have thought that while listening to „The Fall of the Romanovs” by Julie With Cappuccinos I would encouter such an unusual reflection on one of the most famous families in the world. The theme taken up by the artist by its very nature is extremely difficult to interpret. The Romanovs are the last of the Tsars whose fate to this day remains an issue which both attracts attention and arouses controversy. Combining romantic notions of wise, merciful rulers with the dull life of the inhabitants of the then tsarist Russia with ambivalent opinions of the Tsar’s actions and the atrocities of war introduces some kind of a dissonance. Recalling the very name of the Imperial Family without mentioning the assumed cruel methods of ruling applied by the Tsars throughout the ages for some may sound like the counterfeiting of history and an attempt to create a purely nostalgic view of that period. The Romanovs have become the next unsolved historical mystery, with many people trying to solve it passionately. Some of them even claim that it has already been solved, dreaming up romantic visions about the whole family escaping their own execution, however they somehow fail to present Any convincing results. Having created this poignant soundtrack to the last days of the Romanovs, Julie With Cappuccinos doesn’t put the „old world order” - tsarism - on the pedestal, that is not the point of the album at all. The praising of political systems characterizes narrow-minded creators who are often closely linked to a given system (like communism) and serve its strict purposes. In her compositions, the author tries to focus on the tragedy of the individuals in their clash with the machine of history and the ruthless collective which forces us to look at the Tsar’s and his family’s actions from the point of view of the Russian nation which fell victim to them. The people bound by the golden shackles, the color of the ornaments on the album cover, in the view of many had been enslaved for ages. Obviously it is hard not to look at this period with a dose of skepticism without analysing the slip-ups and alleged crimes which were commited by Nicholas II. The Romanovs which we encounter listening to the album come up both as people who are alive and look at us from the cards of history and a symbol of lost values, such as the love of individualism. Seen through the musical image, the Romanovs are PERSONS without political background. The album with its narration and dark atmosphere undoubtedly attempts to depict various emotions which could have been experienced by the members of the Imperial Family - more appropriate Nicholas, Alexandra, Aleksiej, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia - in their last days. This is definitely not easy-listening music. I had to put tremendous effort when listening, it took me quite a while since I took on the second half after a long break. The musical message is so suggestive that I found myself feeling as if I was the witness of the events which have occured, as if I accompanied the family in these painful moments and experienced their fear and despair. That is because here we look at the whole family as private persons living their personal drama - if only for the titles of the individual tracks which are named after the members of the family. The poignant introduction in form of the first track, „The Romanovs”, featuring an unsettling ostinato cello part repeated through the whole track, introduces the listener to the tragic story of the Imperial Family, completing the picture of their fall with ominous, high piano sounds which come back persistently, as if reminding us of the inevitability of fate. „The Winter Palace” with its cold, almost freezing sounds and nostalgic piano parts evokes the image of an imprisoned family which recallects the past times spent in the palace. The pieces featuring names, namely „Alexandra”, „Alexey” and „Nicholas”, as well as the track „White Dress” dedicated to the daughters, bring us together to the personal tragedy experienced by each one of them. The choir parts make many of the pieces even more melancholic. Particular attention is drawn to the piece „Nicholas” which is characterized by sad, almost mournful violin and piano parts which seem to be saying: „All is lost now”. As I listened, I asked myself: has forcing a young man who was unprepared to take power over his land and who declared: „I never wanted to be tsar”caused all this to happen? Could the tragedy have been avoided? Being a mamber of the Imperial Family automatically implied being a ruler. The Tsar was not able to decide about his fate, this secondo, maybe even more harmful collectivism of the tsardom and the mechanisms which regulated the fate of the individual destined to be Tsar decided for them. And another collectivism - Bolshevism - has even taken their right to live. People - as persons, individuals - were not important in this clash of systems. It seems that these dark sounds take us on a last journey. We ride on a train with the Imperial Family on this cold and dark night, listening to the „monotonous sound of the train wheels” („Blue Blood”, one of two pieces with recitation); we arrive with the family to „Red Yekaterinburg” which was taken by the Bolsheviks simmering with unrestrained hostility towards the Imperial Family; we listen to Alexandra’s prayer („A Postcard from Tobolsk”) and we accompany them in their last attempts to seize the remnants of life („Hope”), we experience anxiety and the power of their executioners („Fear” and „The Dark Gentleman (Yurovsky)” until we finally say goodbye to the world with the sounds of cello filled with melancholy in „The End”. In these sounds I haven’t heard the cheap propaganda glorifying the golden age of the tsarism, but instead the praise of individualism and the longing for values which are dying in our ever changing and unifying world. I invite you on this last journey. Peter Sonntag, Petersburg Morning Star
And especially for your insightful comments which confirm that this album is not a shallow glorification of tsarism and any political system, but instead focuses on the tragedy of the individual which was my aim indeed :)
