СОЛДАТ СЕМЕНОВ  No Retreat

It's not the best work of Soldier Semenov. Alas, it's not. Sokolovsky's arrangements (he's famous for his work in "Nochnoy prospect") are faultless. Texts - especially about Byzantine Summer - are rather good. But it's almost impossible to call those texts lyrics, more likely they are poems. That's why, it seems, we hardly need the arrangements at all. What we really need is Sergey Letov's saxophone. But it's always required. Natalia Medvedeva and Dmitry Shagin back-vocal would also be quite convenient, if only we could identify it.

We, nevertheless, love Soldier Semenov. More for "The Plan of Saving Konstantinopol" than for anything else. There was more energy in it. More geopolitical questions. Fewer trifles of life. And more of Genesis P.-Orridge.

Soldier Semenov, in general, is the last soldier of Russian logo-centric empire. The decline of this empire is obvious. But one should leave it befittingly. One should go further.

And no retreat, never.