Year of release: 2020
Label: COD Label
Rating: 6,5 / 10
The last release from COD promo package belongs to the Murmansk project PEOPLE ON THE HILL, which includes a whole crowd of people playing more or less the same instruments. Most likely, the songs were made in different time by different people and then they were compiled into an album. Or all eight of the people listed on the spread were participants in the summer adventures that "Wild Flowers" tells about.
The album starts off with an eerie opening whispering about how the moon will turn red like blood and things like that. Coupled with the image of six maidens in white dancing around a campfire on the spread of a digisleeve this sets up a serious Sabbath feeling, but the first impression is deceiving. On the next tracks, the album retains a very calm and peaceful character, even too much. The press release says "Wild Flowers" is a collection of memories of summer and youth in the winter hours. This is probably why the memories turned out to be slightly faded. The album has good dynamics, but all the way it is too restrained, as if the musicians are afraid to wake up drunken neighbors. The music of PEOPLE ON THE HILL more than once reminded me the wonderful Hungarian project WOODLAND CHOIR, only the cheerful Hungarian Attila Bakos did not hesitate to hit the strings at the right time, let out a squeak to take a note or to dance dashingly on the plank floor of the tavern. All this did not in any way detract from the seriousness of the music and did not spoil the authentic pastoral atmosphere. PEOPLE ON THE HILL are too shy for that. They hardly even sing, but rather “melodiously read out” the text. On the other hand, WOODLAND CHOIR was revealed only on the third album, after two shitty records, and for Murmansk guys and girls this is the debut, so I may be rushing things.
The album doesn't have a basic set of instruments; a unique approach is applied to each track. In my opinion, the flute and guitar stand out the most from all the abundance of sound expressive means. The guitar just sounds most often, and the flute has the most interesting and pleasant parts. All in all, the band has a rich arsenal: violin, synthesizer, jew's harp, all kinds of drums, bass plus the above-mentioned things. It is a pity that it begins to be used for real only at the end. Somewhere from the song “At night”, the sixth out of ten, the music is gradually becoming more active and more intense. To some extent, it becomes simplified, but the instruments are used for a clearly defined purpose, creating sequential melodies, and not just as arrangements. However, the last track only symbolizes the withering, not the climax.
“Wild Flowers” is such a release, in relation to which you can apply a lot of exciting epithets, but the final aftertaste does not prompt you to ask for more. Atmospheric - yes. Nostalgic - definitely. Intellectual, highly cultured - perhaps it is. Imaginative - no doubt. Amusing? But this is already doubtful. I didn't manage to “dissolve” in music, although I listened to it on summer nights right under the stars. Maybe we need to wait for winter? One way or another, the indecision that comes through from every hole of this album makes me think that the musicians have not yet found a way to fully express themselves. There is also the assumption that some of the album's nondescriptness is deliberate, in order to emphasize that the stories told in the songs reflect old memories that have faded over time. If so, then PEOPLE ON HILL certainly achieved their goal, and the final rating can be increased by a point.
“Дикие цветы” издан в раскладном диджисливе с кармашком. Тираж, как и у других присланных мне релизов, составил 97 вручную пронумерованных копий. Текстов песен нет, но они разбираются на слух. Выглядит очень красиво. Подробности on a video.
English (UK) 
Крыўская