Биография

KAUAN was formed in 2005 by Anton Belov in Chelyabinsk, nearly 2,000 kilometers east from Moscow into Russia’s heartland. The band’s name is derived from Finnish, which translates as “for a long time.” KAUAN’s lyrics are also written and performed in Finnish, a language Belov chose for its soothing, ethereal tones, and also because so few speak it, allowing for the use of the human voice as an instrument while still maintaining a sense of mystery and abstraction. KAUAN’s influential early albums masterfully traced across numerous sounds and styles, drawing upon nature-evocative folk arrangements and emotive ambience, and seamlessly contrasted crushing metal with moments of quiet introspection. Now on Kaiho, the band’s eighth album, Belov focuses on childhood and the transition to adulthood, when the death of a loved one shatters halcyon beginnings and makes clear the stark reckoning that awaits in the end. The album is considered by Belov to be a “comprehensive and mature sequel” to KAUAN’s 2009 album, Aava Tuulen Maa, due to a similar lightness of tone and neoclassical approach. Lyrics for the album were written by the great Finnish folk singer Marja Mattlar. Art for Kaiho, a series of landscape and abstract watercolors painted by Belov’s grandmother, depicts memories pulled from his childhood in Troitsk, but visualized through her own interpretation. Art direction for the album was provided by FELD (Erased Tapes, Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds).