Iulia Laskina: "Esche ne vecher" (It's Still Early...)

First impressions? The cover: pasted into the background is Cologne Cathedral. The reason for this strange choice (and enthusiastic use of glue) is that Laskina lived in Germany for seven years after winning a music competition in Krasnodar, judged by the mighty Iosif Kobzon. Whilst in the land of beer and BMWs she performed under the psuedonym of Julia Deppe and even started on an album in 2006, using studios in both Cologne and Berlin. The project, however, was never completed.

In March 2008, funding for the final tracks and remastering was found, not in Germany, but in Russia - thanks to the "Nochnoe Taksi" (Night Cab) company. Nochnoe Taksi is an amazingly vigorous music label, yet "Eshche ne vecher" suffers from a strange lack of promo materials. Laskina has no site and no online interviews, neither in Russian nor German. Her chosen label - formed in 1989 - may have produced more than 200 chanson CDs since the mid-90s, but - oddly - Laskina seems to have vanished in their enormous catalog.

Yet this is what makes the recording so intriguing: its themes of anonymity and agency, of little people with big plans, at least initially... The very first song refers to leave-taking in various senses: emigration, leaving one's family, and even a few jokes about "exile."

The concept of absence runs through the CD. The third track, for example, mentions Tel Aviv, Berlin, Nice, and "mysterious Broadway"- with the sound of paparazzi cameras audible on the soundtrack. The future still looks bright, as the album title suggests.

Later numbers (as the track listing above shows) include the traditional chanson theme of emigre restaurants: this "slip" from Broadway into the disappointing restaurant circuit is a great synopsis of so many Russian stage careers in the early 90s, when countless singers came to America dreaming of US success - but then went quietly home. What's special here is the way Laskina includes references in her "restaurant" material to local mafia as comforting, even inspiring acquaintances. A tough life needs tough friends. By placing predictable chanson motifs side by side, Laskina makes some novel observations.

This album, by mixing/matching romantic, patriotic, gypsy, and sentimentally criminal references, becomes not only a great example of a genre "in development," but also how the criminal song (blatnaia pesnia) is rapidly becoming a type of national anthem. The classic, inevitable yearning of anonymous emigres is equated with the fated acts of small-time crooks: neither is to blame for failure - since they'd never win in the first place. The one song that makes lonely Laskina's failing "soul grow brighter, and her heart grow younger" is Mikhail Krug's "Vladimirskii Central."

Krug, crown prince of the criminal lament, was murdered in the summer of 2002, possibly for breaking the thieves' code that only ex-cons may sing of fated terms in distant jails. He doesn't seem the happiest reference-point for Brighton Beach diners... unless she has given up hope altogether. The optimism of Laskina's title may recall other nationally famous songs of the same name by Vladimir Vysotsky (1968) and Laima Vaikule (1987), but she gives their sunny optimism over to cautionary tales of emigration and the benefits of criminal neighbors. Chanson is often criticized for its predictable, even unchanging ways, but Laskina here is making some very timely observations.