Track By Tracks: ZOYA - Songs From Isolation (2021)

Let's begging with the face of this album which is the cover artwork. In my opinion, it is pretty self-explanatory, but I will just add that I didn't just mean isolation in the sense that the whole world is doing for the next almost two years now, but I meant my own isolation. I don't want to go much into details, but basically, I had some dark times when I didn't go outside, I spoke to no one, I made myself a hostage in my own home. The song "Isolation" is also telling about this.

1. TTDSOV:

This song was originally written for my previous band Esperoza, we even have one live video performing this song, but it was never released in an album. The thought of releasing this song within my own solo project was a spontaneous one. As the song which had to be released in that period of time was far from finished (and actually it still is). So I had to find another song very urgent, and this song came to my mind. That is why it sounds almost totally different from the others. The composer of this song is Esperoza's guitarist and composer Dmitrii Prihodko, so all credits go to him for this song.

2. Moya Lyubov':

This song is composed by a very famous Moldavian composer Eugen Doga. I sang this song in the first year on my exams while studying in music college, and I always liked this song, so I always wanted to record it, I just didn't think it will be with a metal arrangement. But Isaac Solanas who is a Spanish composer, sound engineer and arranger did an amazing arrangement for it, so we did this song, and I am glad we did it, in my humble opinion it sounds pretty great.

3. Vesna:

Oh, this song has a big history, I don't even know how to tell it in a few lines, but let's try. This song was written by an old friend of mine Viktor Evdokimov. I met him when I was around 16 years old. I needed back then a song for some vocal competition, so he gave me one of his songs to perform. After a few years, I discovered for myself metal music, and I remember thinking how great it would be to turn this song into some kind of folk metal song. But for many years (more than 10 years), this thought was just a thought. Until the time I decided to make my solo project, and obviously, this song was one of the first on my list.

4. Isolation:

Ironically this song was also composed by the same person as the previous one. After that competition I had another one, and once again I needed an original song for it, and I asked Viktor Evdokimov for composing a new song, so he did it very quickly. This song was a lot softer at the beginning, and it had a few versions, until Dmitrii Prohodko (Esperoza), did a heavier black metal-ish arrangement, which you can hear in the final version.

5. Ce te Legeni Codrule:

This lied was composed by a Romanian composer Nicolae Bretan and the poem is by Mihai Eminescu. I sang it in my second-year exams, and I think in first-year of the conservatoire. I immediately fell in love with it. This is one of those songs that never get boring for me, it always fascinates me in some new ways. So naturally that I wanted to record it one way or another. A very talented Argentinian composer Karim Duckwem did an amazing symphonic metal arrangement, which made this song even better, and I thought it's not possible. Even though I recorded a metal version, I am still planning to do a classical version sometime in the future.

6. Carol of the Bells:

I never had many favorite Christmas songs, and from those few songs one of them always stood out. As you can guess I am talking about "Carol of the Bells", somehow it is very different from all the Christmas songs, it has some unexplained wild energy in it. For as long as I can remember myself I've loved this song, and just around10 years ago I found out that it is actually a Ukrainian song, which made me a bit proud, because ethnically I am a Ukrainian. So when I thought of doing some Christmas covers the choice was obvious.

7. O Holy Night:

This year I also decided to do a Christmas song, as I felt like it is already a mini tradition. So at the top of my list right behind Carol of the Bells was O Holy Night. This song always gave me goosebumps, when it was sung by classical singers or choir. And in general, as you can tell I am a fan of rather classical Christmas songs than pop Christmas songs, sure I can listen to them in the background while decorating my Christmas tree, but they don't have the same effect on me as for example "Carol of the Bells" or "O Holy Night".