Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The night is the harbour of the darkness, like the seismic shock before the Earthquake, the prospect of what is to come plays on the mind, it crawls down sleeping memories in which you hoped for better days and the darkness, the tangible, fearful resolution in the mind that all is lost, all is confused and alone is only the night playing tricks upon the brain. The darkness soon gives way to hope, to understanding that the music can play on, even if it is a different manner, in a way that is full of meaning and the resolution you once felt that abandonment was the only option, soon reveals that the Nuit Noire, the black night, is only a part of life.
Lost In Kiev may have lost a member of the band, the dark days for any such group of artists when the reduction of the collective spirit is threatened, however Nuit Noire catapults them out the funk, out of the arena of chaos and uncertainty and instead brings them neatly, wildly, into a place where the tracks somehow observe the dawn with renewed vigour.
Bordering upon the epic, Nuit Noire shatters the illusion of what was perhaps considered comfortable and turns it into the riotous anger of continuing a dream, things may change, parts may alter; however, in the end what is most sacred is that the play, the one we all take part in, continues and flourishes.
To live for a while in the darkness does not mean you have to be afraid of what comes next, the first light of dawn is not to admonished and in tracks such as Insomnia, Catelepsy, Resilience and Celestial, the feeling is one of fight, of the battle in the heart being won and the disappointment being over turned and washed away downstream with the burning bodies of the night creatures blazing away to warn against further incursions into the art form produced and enjoyed.
A suitable response to anyone finding the way forward they hoped for blocked, that the world evolves and carries on should always see the gentle Muse change shape and look upon the artist with interested and keen eyes.
Lost In Kiev have found their way home and it is one that is brightly lit, a roaring fire of welcome visible and the feeling of loss drowned in the Dnieper River.
Ian D. Hall