Таня БУЛАНОВА  Staya

Professional marketologists state that the eye is the most appealing advertising element which perfectly attracts the audience's attention. This expressive detail is exquisitely appropriate here on the album cover. Being slightly visually immersed into the violet background, this dark eye with an eye-pupil in which we can see a vague silhouette of our heroine, makes us peer into the depth of this eye, trying to find the answer: can we trust this look?

Deformed white font framing the eye looks stunningly on the violet background: above the eye it reminds of an eyebrow tweezed according to the XXI century style; below the eye it looks like a bruise sloppily disguised with a make-up pencil. As a whole this composition appears to be intriguing and refreshing.

In the same time, violet is a color of mystical search and esoteric insight. Those who like violet create atmosphere of harmony and concord around them, but they often hesitate while making the decisions. Probably that's why the heroine (the singer) has not decided yet which part of her body should be turned to the audience.

White clothes (are they white? It's hard to say definitely because of the violet filter) are creating stylish image. The main characteristic of this photo session is loose style of heroine's outfit, which, according to the legend, is appreciated by the youngsters. All this helps to create the dynamic image with slight feeling of detachment.

The heroine's picture is extremely good. It was made in the university stairway, and one can clearly see panic and fear of disclosure in her eyes. This should attract yet another target group - the students.

A rare design technique adds additional value to the whole concept of the album cover: all compositions on CD are ciphered into elegant geometrical figures. In order to create them the designer used wide range of non-Cyrillic Windows fonts. Being imbued with the whole atmosphere of the album, especially songs No .. and *, we can suggest that those symbols express the deeper meaning of the compositions, or stay for the ciphered messages to succeeding generations or to outer worlds.

Music, vocal and lyrics do not destroy violet-and-whitish ambience of the album.

So, the whole impression of "Staya" (which means "Flock", or "Herd", or just "Community") is quite positive, with slight shade of surprise: where does the second eye look?