FOARM

saint petersburg

The door made a strange sound. both rattling and moaning at the same time

Та дверь издавала какой-то странный дребезжащий и вместе стонущий звук

Nikolay Gogol, “Old-World Landowners” (1835)

FOARM are an ambient duo from St. Petersburg, Russia. They are swift to declare themselves authors of “dark, deep, and melodic music that is full of sorrow–– yet possesses a great beauty.” Enthusiastically name-checking their influences (David Sylvian, Gigi Masin, Bvdub, and Hammock) Foarm offer sketch their compositional style with admirable brevity. “Snippets of voices, analog synthesizers, and bright phrasing on the piano… This is dark, cautious and yet emotionally rich music.” These minuscule texts then become ia strange melange of chutzpah and uncertainty. “These works express an amazing beauty and––it would seem––a unique significance.”

The conscious act of composing gives rise to something uncertain and, in several cases, directly worrying. It’s no coincidence that one of Foarm’s recent albums was entitled “Midlife Regrets Sessions.” Conscious decisions in years gone by lead to abstract anxieties. Time and again, Foarm speak of their work in similar binaries: first the bold claim (regarding the past) and then the anxiety (over the future). The latter finds expression in “drone-vocal samples and disturbing melodies.” Elsewhere talk turns to “the soundtrack for existential musings” or––in the grandest terms of all––a “dialog with eternity.” Neither of which is consoling.

Soundcloud / Bandcamp / VK