2023 repress; second edition of these recordings from 1995. Originally issued on LP in 2017. Svitlana Nianio has been active in the Ukrainian and Polish underground music scenes since the early ’90s both as a solo artist and a prominent member of the now disbanded avant-rock outfit Cukor Bila Smert (Sugar White Death). Her music draws on aspects of modern composition and traditional Slavic music, with songs and experiments from that early period culminating in the 1999 album Kytytsi (Koka Records, Poland). Prior to that in 1995, Nianio recorded Lisova Kolekciya (Forest Collection) live in a simple home studio setting with Olexander Yurchenko and Konstantin Nazarenko. Less indebted to folk tradition than Kytytsi, Lisova Kolekciya was performed using Casio keyboards, electronics, and voice, positioning itself more in-line with Terry Riley’s Shri Camel in its otherworldly reinterpretation of the ancient through modern means. Retaining aspects of traditional music in its use of spare instrumentation and haunting vocal melodies, this largely unknown album pushes at the edges of what folk music might be, resulting in music previously described as being “deeply rooted in primeval myths, creating a world of magic realism, in which the temporal dimension and the other world constantly move and permeate.” Issued here officially for the first time after an extremely limited private cassette edition handed out to friends in 1996 — where the recording was twinned with the album Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhi (Know How? Tell Me) — Lisova Kolekciya comes packaged in a full color offset printed sleeve featuring artwork by Svitlana Nianio. Recorded in Kiev, Ukraine, 1995. Personnel: Svitlana Nianio – Casio MT-200, voice, texts; Olexander Yurchenko – Casio CTK-200; Konstantin Nazarenko – recording engineer, sound effects. Digital master by Sean McCann, 2017. Design by Andrew Chalk and Tom James Scott. Includes download code; edition of 300.