Short Reviews [Quicksilver Night - 2023 - "Ptichka"]

It has been a few years since I came across Warren Russell and his Quicksilver Night project, where he brings in other musicians to help him realise his dreams, but I must admit I never thought I would hear a collection of music as complete as this. This is a five-song EP, with each song credited as having a guest musician such as Marco Iacobini, Farzad Golpayegani or Andrew N Project (who is on three), but aside from the music and the songs themselves the most important guest is Russian singer Dikajee. Warren and Dikajee announced their collaboration in December 2021, but the Russian invasion had a major impact on their plans, and it took until September this year for this to be released. Warren provided the music, they collaborated on the lyrics, and met in the middle where Dikajee’s wonderful vocals met the arrangements and combined to create something quite special indeed. At times progressive, at others more symphonic, musically this is direct and in your face with plenty of layers and some wonderful shredding metallic guitar solos. Against this we have a singer who is obviously influenced by the likes of Bjork and Kate Bush, who has been classically trained and enjoys showing off her talents in a similar fashion to Floor Jansen. There are times when the music moves in a Russian folk fashion, but the guitars are never far away. The bass is incredibly important and complex, often linked in with the keyboards in a quite Uriah Heep manner, but one of the things which makes this such an interesting EP is that one never knows quite where it is going to go, so keyboards or acoustic guitars may, or may not, have important parts to play. Dikajee can be playful in her style, one can imagine her smiling when recording some of the lines, or even dancing in the studio, but at others she is incredibly dramatic and in your face. The mix of different cultures and styles come together well on this EP, and I hope we get a full album in the near future.