British-Israeli combo Staraya Derevnya make an extreme montage of noise and rhythm on their latest record Inwards Opened the Floor

When an album’s instrument credits include a ‘silent cello’, ‘radio interference’ and ‘a rocking chair’, even the most receptive eyebrows might be raised. Music fans of a certain creed could also anticipate the name Café Oto somewhere in the mix. In this case they’d be right, as the Staraya Derevnya ensemble created this work at the eclectic London venue’s Project Space.

An outfit of a dozen or so performers, Staraya Derevnya takes its name from a metro stop in Saint Petersburg. The band consists mainly of Russian and Israeli members, led unofficially by Gosha Hniu – responsible on this outing for ‘objects’ and ‘toys’ among other stuff. Inwards Opened the Floor is released in tandem with two live efforts, one partly recorded at Café Oto.

Among its notable aspects is Hniu’s vocalising, which takes Russian vocabulary and made-up jabbering into uttered extremes. Behind this lies an untamed melange of electronica and acoustic instruments, more likely played with a toothbrush than bowed or blown. Yet for all their multiple components and improvised bursts, these pieces maintain a genuine flow. You might sense The Birthday Party’s early volatility, Patti Smith’s spiritual wanderings with The Sound Collective, maybe the industrial Zen of Laraaji, Merz & Ismaily. ‘Simply let sounds be sounds,’ as John Cage said. It’s all about breaking down barriers between art and life.

From the outset there’s the sense of being lost abroad, enclosed by murmurations from unknown tongues. “On How the Thorny Orbs Got Here” has cryptic vocals that might be oaths and charms, or riddles and proverbs. A hypnotic lull prevails, despite the pattered percussion that seems hell-bent on waking us from this trance. Woody rattlings on “Chirik Is Heard From the Treetops” might be from any found instrument, setting up the animal chirps, band of drummers and orgiastic techno that follows. “Flicked the Ash in Kefir” opens to drones and soft screeches, before the prayerful becomes a deranged zone of anguished cries and atonal jazz.  It marks the album’s most violent confrontation.

“Hogweed is Done With Buckwheat” finds an angular trance, eastern rhythms and the kind of boggled mantras familiar to Damo Suzuki fans. “Burning Bush and Apple Saucer” joins a brooding monologue with cosmic dub beats, then the title track is all loopy-Sufism, rasping kazoo and stoned cadences. The minimal and softly static “Forgot What Was Important” then makes for a disembodied finale.

The song titles mentioned here come from the poetry of Russian artist Arthur Molev. Molev once said that he had no philosophy – an attitude that Hniu’s collective might echo. The cover artwork shows a folkloric creature fleeing a snowy landscape, as the crimson horizon bleeds into its path. It’s the invention of Russian painter Danil Gertman whose live visuals often accompany Staraya Derevnya’s concerts. All these chains of association link into a network that feeds off each other’s creative nous.

It’s rare to hear an outfit so fully embrace the erratic, but Staraya’s work is anything but unstable. Such musical anarchy offers a challenging vision of our future listening.

Staraya Derevnya Bandcamp

Staraya Derevnya website

Gareth Thompson