Thursday 18 August 2016

Египтянин / Egiptyanin (Пикник / Picnic, 2001)

Picnic (in Russian, Пикник) surely are one of the most eccentric and crossover bands from Eastern Europe. Their sound ranges between space rock and folk, including synth rock and many traditionally prog features.This is the title track from their eleventh studio album, obviously dedicated to the Ancient Egypt, one of the band's favourite topics.

This cover art reveals the ironic side of Picnic's songs.

The song has a rather traditional structure, a dreamy, catchy slow tempo ballad with a Floydian finale, where Edmund Shklyarskiy's guitar flies high above the listener. He even creates for this song a new instrument he calls novoegyptian to add a bit of visual show to the live performances. What I especially like in Picnic is the way they mix different elements to build up an evocative, arcane sound that also includes the right dose of irony. A theatrical way to (prog) rock Picnic never gave up during their long and everchanging career.

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