Review: СОЮЗ (SOYUZ) - KROK (Mr Bongo)

This time last year we had our first taste of СОЮЗ (SOYUZ) and we said then, "you need this" and the same goes for the album!

 

SOYUZ's 'Spring Has Sprung' featuring Asha Puthli and Sven Wunder went onto appear on Mr Bongo's Record Club Vol 7 (see reveiw HERE) and it's still a mystery how/why Asha Puthli (Asian space disco queen) and Sweden's disco king Sven Wunder appeared on the same track.  Especially as, the Belarusian exiled band СОЮЗ lead by  Alex Chumak are on their fourth album, 'KROK' meaning 'step'.

My linguistic skills do not extend to Belaarusian but it's not long into this album that you get a sense of Brazilian influence, like 'Lingua Do Mundo' (featuring Tim Bernardes).  This is because after an album in Poland, Alex is now settled in São Paulo, thus, 'KROK' has a unique sound and feel of Eastern prog-folk mixed with Rubel, also on Mr. Bongo (see review HERE).

The album was recorded direct to tape featuring Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile, and Marcelo Cabral (apart from the guest vocal feature by Tim Bernardes recorded at a later date).

The titles like 'Калі ты запытаеш / Kali ty zapytaješ' and 'Ніці / Nici' give no indication to the level of gentle loveliness of the songs and then 'Voo Livre' mixes up the the homeland folk-jazz with groovey Latin prog in a OST way.

I'm already in love with this album as it packs a punch with a velvet gloove to a world audience - did I say, "you need this"?

BUY LINK / PRE-ORDER. KROK | СОЮЗ / SOYUZ

Artist: СОЮЗ (SOYUZ)

Title: KROK 

Release date: 24th October, 2025

Label : Mr Bongo 

Catalog Number : TBC

Format :  Vinyl / CD / Digital / Bandcamp