COIO3 (SOYUZ) - KROK [LP]

Cat. no: MRBLP318
Format: LP
Barcode: 5024017006980
Release Date: 24 Oct 2025
Genre: World Music

Despite immense challenges, SOYUZ have delivered a career-defining album in KROK.

"Krok" means "step" in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his band this word comes with a lot of meaning. It's the title and theme that ran throughout COIO3 (SOYUZ)'s fourth album, reflecting the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Embracing the uncertainty became both the inspiration and main lyrical theme for Alex Chumak, SOYUZ' composer and arranger, who also decided to go a step further and change the language in which he writes songs from Russian, which is used as lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries, to his native Belarusian. The result is nine songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very distant at the same time.

At the tail end of 2024, Chumak and SOYUZ' new drummer, Albert Karch, made the trip to Sao Paulo to record the first sessions for KROK. Laid down directly to tape, these sessions featured prominent Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile, and Marcelo Cabral, with a guest vocal feature by Tim Bernardes recorded at a later date. The final touches were then added back in Europe. Lush string and woodwind arrangements written by Chumak and Karch were recorded at the Polish Radio studio in Warsaw, and Rhodes parts were added by Chumak at Sven Wunder's studio in Stockholm.

Though primarily recorded in Brazil, KROK is not a Brazilian or MPB album. It blends the band's Eastern European roots with jazz, folk and global influences. The genre of the music is hardly identifiable: there are folk ballads and jazz-driven pop compositions covered in lush and often dissonant string and woodwind arrangements where each note is placed with care and meaning behind it.

The title track was the first song Chumak wrote in Belarusian as an adult, making for a fitting opener and one of the band's finest tracks. Darker than most of SOYUZ' songs, the tensions lift and lighten as the track progresses. Elsewhere, the heartfelt 'Lingua Do Mundo', composed, written, and sung by Chumak and the incredible Tim Bernardes, features one of the standout string arrangements from Chumak and Karch. 'Cichi Karahod' is an instant SOYUZ classic, almost Pat Metheny-esque as it opens, with the acoustic guitar and bass riff transitioning into jazzy AOR / pop-folk territory.

LP Tracks: Krok / Lingua Do Mundo (Feat. Tim Bernardes) / Nici / Kali Ty Zapytajes / Cichi Karahod / P7 Blues / Voo Livre / Vcb / Smak Zyccia (Feat. Manami Kakudo)