ECHOES AND SIGNALS: “Mercurial” (release date April 9, 2021)

Light and Dark

Reality in Dreams in Reality

Here’s a multi-layered gem from Tula, Russia-based duo ECHOES AND SIGNALS. “Mercurial” is their third full-length release; prior to these, they recorded two EP’s, all since their beginnings in 2012.

Here’s the line-up:

Fedor Kivokurtsev – Guitars, Vocals, Production
Alexey Zaytsev – Bass, Keyboards

Drums were recorded and co-composed by Leo Margarit (Pain of Salvation).

Concepts

A few thoughts, without attempting a scholarly dissertation: Yes, it’s that deep. “Multi-layered” wasn’t used as hyperbole- a study of life/death; water/chaos-sea/cleansing-baptismal waters; birth/rebirth.

The use of archetypal images created by Viktoria Kurcheva add further layers, depths, and suggestive meanings.

I hear within the lyrics (and thank you to the band for including these, making lyrics easily accessible) many (mostly melancholic and…nihilistic might be too strong…but not very optimistic) ruminations on what kinds of choices we fragile humans actually have, the need for control- even though we really have very little, and frankly- what is real?

Music

The music is germane to the lyrics and images- that is to say, dark, brooding, with ‘mercurial’ shifts from chiming guitars to heavy, edgy riffs, to almost stately and orchestral-tinged passages, in which each player goes from strength to strength, never over-playing, always staying in the ‘zone’ in which the whole becomes greater than any of its parts.

This is overlaid on lyrics like “Everything is gone/Time erases everything I called my own”, in which the protagonist dreams- or does he- somewhere in a void, staring into the abyss, crying out for succor.

Or, “I’m just a boy/I’m lost inside this spell”- that suggestion of terror within childhood nightmares, which live on sometimes within the adult version of us.

Voice

Apparently ECHOES AND SIGNALS were previously mostly instrumental. For me hearing Fedor’s clear, clean, wistful, tender, searching tenor vocals, it seemed like it would be a terrible shame to have wasted this excellent instrument.

Guitar

While there are hints here and there of keyboard/synth- even a suggestion of mellotron (and as a keyboard-loving fool I longed for more), the main mood-setter, melody-planting, fullness-generating instrument is the guitar.

Whether gently plucked or heavily power-chorded, jangly dissonant sounds layered over intricately voiced chords, the guitar formed the body of the song.

I was surprised and delighted to see in at least one video the use of a Telecaster, and there are a multitude of sounds and layers and octaves and moods brought forth.

Bass Guitar

Here along with the precision and powerful drumming of Leo, we get a taste of the rhythm section in which bass guitar never overplays, and in some ways, stays below the radar (and in some ways I might have liked to hear more), yet always finds the root, or accents the passing chord, adding depth and fullness to the whole.

I thought bass and drums worked together in sometimes complex, and always coordinated hand-in-glove precision. Guest drummer Leo seemed to me to ‘get’ this music, and sometimes brought a lot of thunder and drama, and other times rather delicate tastefulness to the proceedings.