DER FINGER'S LE CINQUE STAGIONI: JARRING JAZZ TO SPARK THE MIND AND STING THE SPINE!!!

Le Cinque Stagioni is a new album, released for international consumption by Toten Schwan Records, composed and performed by the Moscow-based band, Der Finger, featuring Anton Efimov (bass guitar), Evgenia Sivkova (drums, sax) and Edward Sivkov (sax, bass clarinet, bass domra). If you enjoy edgy, avant-garde music with a film-score twist, Le Cinque Stagioni is certain to spark your mind and sting your spine through five, fantastic phases...

The initial track, "Verwirruag" invokes a Vivaldi vitality, though this baroque prelude is more in Gothic sync with Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein than the jazzy gist that the band favors. Still, the evocative entry works as a practical, flustering warm-up to Der Finger's more modern, though no less tingling tracks.

"Zweittracht" follows: the album's sedulous flight of fierce fancy, prompting thoughts of tipsy Terence Stamp zooming down a dark, discordant road in "Spirits of the Dead". "Zweittracht'"s immediate companion piece, "Unordnung" stalls the engine's roar, hinting a fate of painful disarray and grisly death. (Remember Stamp's fate? Ouch!)

Despite the threat, death doesn't come, paving instead a nurtured anguish, thanks to the bodacious "Beamten herrschaft". The track's vibrant vibrations precipitate an urge to duel and dominate, its notes recalling such aggrieved, adolescent flicks as "Blackboard Jungle", "The Violent Years" and "High School Confidential".

Once the contention subsides, the redeeming "Realpolitik" explodes, instilling images of buck-the-system Kirk Douglas in "Champion"--no, make that "Spartacus"--but what good is a bone-battered victory if it spurs no residue? To ensure that the coup d'etat reaches far and digs deep, one must (and with great relish) re-listen to all five, emotional sessions, again and again... Ah, pure, psychoanalytical bliss. 

To sample the jarring jazz of Le Cinque Stagoni and/or to order Der Finger's fabulous, limited-edition, Toten Schwan CD, visit...  https://totenschwan.bandcamp.com/album/tsr-106-le-cinque-stagioni.