The Reconstruction

The idea to fully reconstruct the album came up in 2014. It became clear from the start that the original tape should be treated as a demo, and the album would have to be re-recorded from scratch, with the lyrics re-written and drums live. It seemed like a lot of work, and even though some guitar tracks were recorded at that time, the project was shelved in order to focus on Of Things and Beings.

In May 2018, Andy undertook a titanic job of replaying all the instruments by ear, guided by the 1992 tape (excluding the Midnight in Venice which was scored in 1992). After that, Vasya was summoned to record the flute and vocal parts, which he did on June 28-30, 2018. Just two days before, the flute parts for Spheres Aligned were also recorded.

The last phase: confined to his apartment by the pandemic in 2020, Andy searched the internet for a drummer. The young and versatile freelance drummer Matt Brown was found, and from his studio in London, he recorded the drums in June-July 2020. The album was mixed and mastered in November-December 2020 by Andy and Alex.

The Original Premises

1991-1992 academic year is our third year at the Academic Music College, Moscow. Vasya is living with his mom, an acoustic guitar, and a cat in a tiny apartment near Paveletzkaya Station. Andy lives in a college dorm room #8 with Alex and Misha, two fine piano students. Andy, a self-proclaimed guitar and bass player, is in possession of a double cassette tape recorder, a Diamond bass guitar, a Formanta electric guitar, and a Yamaha VSS 200 keyboard brought from Japan by his older brother. A borrowed Boss drum machine is also involved. Hardly top-notch equipment, but at that moment it provides enormous inspiration and a possibility to write and record our own vision of what art rock music is about. Vasya tapes his demos at home and then comes to the dorms to drink tea and record. Alex has soldered five 5-pin jacks together, thus resolving the problem of an absent mixing desk and enabling overdubs. The general understanding is that we are wasting valuable time doing this, instead of practicing Bach and Tchaikovsky.

Original lineup:

Vassili Soloviev – vocal, flute, guitar, keyboard

Andy Didorenko – vocal, bass guitar, guitar, violin

Mikhail Ralenko – keyboard

Alexander Akimov – keyboard

Faithfully reconstructed in 2018 - 2020 by:

Vassili Soloviev – vocal, flute

Andy Didorenko – vocal, bass, guitar, keyboards, violin

Matt Brown – drums

Track by Track

The Underpass Theme

Transferred from the original tape. The street noise was recorded on March 17, 1992, at 9-10 PM at Park Kultury Metro station. Andy's melody, along with the coin drop, was recorded by Vasya in the dorm shower.

I Wanna Drift Away

One of Vasya's first songs, written in November '90. Originally recorded between April 2 and May 20, 1992. Andy and Vasya wrote their first song together in the spring of 1990, thus forming the long-lasting future partnership. Most of the songs and compositions, however, were written individually and later developed and finished together.

Day City

Conceived by Andy on guitar and bass in December '91, and reworked in collaboration with Alex on June 4, 1992. The concept of a man lost in a city is one of the recurrent themes in Lost World Band's music. Moscow has changed radically since then (except for the weather - you can go for weeks without the sunshine). In 1992, it was a bit scary yet very exciting to live there.

You

Originally titled 'She', Vasya's opus about unrequited love was the first-ever melody he brought to his bandmates to adore in the early autumn '90. It was later embellished with a Vivaldi-esque introduction and a middle section. Admittedly, not one of the band members was in a successful relationship at that moment. The sexual frustration was suppressed and took a form of romantic lyrics and music.

Juliet

Written in the fall of 1991, Andy's song, inspired by Prokofiev's theme from Romeo and Juliet, was cleverly transposed and fully reworked, with time signature changed from 3/4 to 6/8 and melody and lyrics added on top. Naturally, the Dance of the Knights, a.k.a. Montague and Capulet, was also adapted for a rock version but not recorded on the album. Half a year later, to our astonishment, we learned that ELP did it on their Black Moon album.

Cold Moon Bolero

Originally, this spontaneous improvisation by Andy on guitar and Vasya on flute in an old, half-demolished church on July 15, 1992, was inspired by the enigmatic acoustics of the place. Later, Vasya added two more flute lines to it, and Andy came up with the bass. Not included on the original album but presented here to complete the picture. The word Bolero was added to the title to acknowledge that the first element of the melody resembles the famous Ravel's Bolero.

Going Back Home

Andy's song, written in October '91 and recorded between March 19 and May 20, 1992. It was considered pretty advanced to have a riff and two separate melodies running at the same time. Per Alex's suggestion, the 5/4 bridge was added. Misha contributed a keyboard solo. Same as the rest of the lyrics on the album, while preserving the original idea, words were re-written by Andy in 2018 and edited by Yuliya Basis.

Midnight in Venice

On July 12, 1992, Andy appeared at Vasya's dacha to walk along the fields, play soccer, and compose a string quartet with his friend. An extra challenge was added by the absence of the piano. The third movement of this quartet, written solely by Vasya, is presented here as a later addition to the album, played by Andy on four acoustic guitars.

Mind Stream

Uncharacteristically, a pop song, written by Andy on April 27, 1992. Lost World wasn't supposed to be a pop album, but this one sneaked in because it had a rhythm pattern running through and a nice bass guitar riff. Another fine solo contribution by Misha.

House of the Past

Written by Vasya with Andy's lyrics in the fall of 1991. Recorded June 3 – June 11, 1992. Andy and Vasya re-recorded Vasya's flute and vocals in two sessions in June 2018. 26 years passed since they had sung and played these compositions. It was the strangest mix of feelings, a whole life lived between now and then, a touch of nostalgia, flashes of memories, a bit of pride that our very first opus still sounded imaginative and mellifluous. All the flute parts were recorded in one or two takes, although the vocals took much longer to recapture.

Elegy

At the end of May '92, Andy and Vasya conceived a psychedelic improvisation on bass and flute which incorporated the elements from the Underpass Theme and the unprecedentedly beautiful melody Vasya wrote in the fall of 1990. The chord progression of this melody was absolutely enchanting. The original version was recorded in one take and completed on June 19, 1992, after Vasya overdubbed an organ part.
There was a joke from the mock interview Andy and Vasya improvised: 'Have you written anything for a flute, double bass and a hi-hat?' It did sound funny, like a totally random set of instruments.
On the other hand, a bass guitar and flute duet was very appealing for both players. It gave each instrument lots of space, and they would never interfere with one another. There were no drums in the original version, but Andy took the risk of asking Matt to come up with the drum part. Thus the integral hi-hat part was added, and the flute/double bass/hi-hat trio is now complete.

Journey

Vasya's composition, a conflation of his song from the fall of 1990 and a guitar prelude of the same period, with Alex's melody on top. Although Andy and Vasya considered themselves a team of songwriters, they each had a distinct approach. While Andy leaned towards simpler rock sound, Vasya added classical music flavors to his compositions by using advanced modulations, broken time signatures, and more.

The Underpass Theme (Reprise)

Andy's theme, here re-harmonized by Misha, originally recorded on the keyboard, re-recorded in 2019 by Andy on violins.

Night City

A fast art rock composition written mostly by Andy with various suggestions from Alex and Misha. It brought together many riffs and elements evoking the image of a speedy drive through the city at night. It was originally recorded live by Andy on bass, Misha on piano, and Alexey (our younger friend) on violin. The recording was only possible because Misha had the ability to play all the riffs and solos at an incredible speed, and also “pull off Emerson” - play 5/8 and 7/4 simultaneously. Recorded on June 10-11, 1992 

Trajectories 1 - 3

Materialized in the summer of 2001 when the composer Soloviev - Didorenko had conceived something like a violin-and-flute concerto. All three movements were written one after another within few days; they represent the pure water crystal of the co-authorship. For example, the chords for the flute theme in the third movement were composed by Didorenko but the melody was written by Soloviev. Perhaps we shouldn't dig too deep into the details. We cannot help but mention, however, that Soloviev came up with two thirds of all the first movement's F sharps,  whereas most of the B flats belong to Didorenko's talented pen. Another amazing fact is that there exists the arrangement of this piece for a symphony orchestra; the score is kept in a safe place. The Vienna Philarmonic has not yet risked to undertake the performance; so all our hopes lie with the New York Phil.
 
My Heart Was Crushed
Composed together with the Trajectories. Didorenko wrote the lyrics, and Soloviev wrote the guitar riff to be performed by himself. From the sound of it, one may get the impression that Akimov played the double bass. As a matter of fact, it was the violin put down an octave and played by Didorenko. A certain quasi-oriental flavor is explained by our quasi-love for it.
 
Splinters
A short but advantageous composition, since you get four Soloviev the flutists for the price of one, skilfully playing on four tracks, plus Didorenko the timpanist. Akimov made the noise.
 
Birds
A remarkable composition for those who like avantgarde, minimalism, improvisation, and all other kinds of modern obscurities. Unattractive guitar chords personify, as the rumour goes, the permafrost; flutes and the acoustic guitar scurry about to stay warm. A moody piece.
 
There's Day, Here's Night
A song. We, personally, like it. In general, we, personally, like all of it. A group of russian tourists who went to North Korea for vacation and missed their train could relate to this song particularly well. They sang it until they ran out of water and cigarets. Whatever happened to them afterwards remains unknown. Just kidding. It really is just a nice lyrical song with simple but expressive text. Was nicely sung by Alexei Rybakov and one more Alexei Rybakov as a back vocal.
 
The Two
Another flute/guitar composition by the same co-authors. Starts out of nothing with a soft flute solo and crescendos head-on to harsh atonal rock.
 
The Yesterday Night
"I just love to turn it on nice and loud in the car and drive cutting off the others," Soloviev admitted once.
The song's basis was recorded in the summer of 2000 while in Soloviev's village, in the field conditions. "We boarded the Oka and arrived at Vassily's hut, full of enthuziasm. To honor our arrival, the thunderstorm began, and a tree fell down on the electric line. As a result, we were left without electricity for more than 24 hours, so we had to go mushroom-picking, play soccer, swim in the peat lake, that is, to waste away the time."
 
Sirius
A Didorenko-Akimovian composition. It is a subject of Didorenko's pride since he played all the guitar parts while Akimov was putting in the percussion and aligning the structure.
 
Hills Are Breaking Into the Ground
A song with nice harmonies and interesting text. By the way, the English translation of this text is interesting in its own right. During the recording, Alexei Rybakov attempted to alter the words to "Bills are breaking into account" but received a note of protest from the authors. The music of this note had not survived.
 
Trajectory Z
The most freshly recorded of the album's pieces. In the coda, the theme of the "Hills..." song is quoted. The album's musical and ideological high point. Was written in the summer of 2002. Didorenko and Soloviev had instantly created the first few chords and came to a dead end of the creative process.  After about a week of dead still, the inspiration came back and followed the composers up until Akimov gave the piece its final mastering and introduction.
 
The Day Has Come
An art-rock song in the best tradition of art-rock songs. The words "We will open our eyes" were written by Daniel Harms in his poem "The Song." On the whole, Harms' heritage plays an important role in Lost World. Also noticeable in this song is the flute solo with distortion.
 
The Curtain
The album had to have its curtain. It was found by Soloviev and Didorenko one beautiful summer evening of 2002. In the piece's middle section one can hear a fragment of "There's Day." To do so, one must first locate the middle section.