No! Not under foreign skies’ domain,

Nor sheltered by the alien wings’ sway,

I was then with my people, through pain,

Where my people, to our grief, did stay.

Anna Akhmatova, 1961 (Requiem)

Misfortune and grief remain so regardless of perspective. When they occur, support, understanding, mutual aid, and compassion are crucial. Denunciation, impatience, and arrogance wound us deeply.

“Take care of each other, don’t lose your temper, live as humbly as if you both had suffered a great grief,” advised writer Andrei Platonov to his family.

The album KEYS TO HOME is an emotional imprint of the era that has befallen us. As in any other, it resounds with the peals of fireworks and missiles:

How is this age worse than those gone before?...###

We, witnesses to great processes, lose ourselves:

I’m not the best nor the worst

Nothing special mid at most...###

We lose connections with friends and loved ones:

— Where? I can’t fathom, try as I might.

Your voice grows fainter, losing its height. ###

We pity ourselves and the span of time that our life coincided with:

No, we’re just in exile, just in exile,

Oh, my poor love, don’t you see? ###

We suffocate from personal tragedies:

To open a window — like veins to rend. ###

We barely understand the present and don’t plan for the future:

How many, how many days — of March?!

They broke us up — like a deck of cards! ###

We seek justification for our actions we dared or dared not take:

...there no one understands me

better here they don’t accept me...###

We closely observe injustice:

They put away Vsevolod Emilyevich.

They put away Isaac Emmanuilovich. ###

We bear responsibility for our decisions and indecision:

And we know, in later judgment’s sight,

Each hour will be justified at last...###

And we hope, we hope, we hope — that simple right cannot be taken from us:

One fine day, I’ll pay off every debt...###

Thank you for listening —

we couldn’t help but share this with you!

The creators of the album