The Cyrillic Typewriter - "Names".
The Cyrillic Typewriter - "Troops of Pure Silver".

In Italy, perhaps, a zumpano is the name for a sparrow, a magpie, a quick black bird that snatches berries from branches. In Canada, Zumpano is just a musician, a Vancouver familiar, but he too is quick, snatching. The Cyrillic Typewriter's Cyrillic Typewriter is a suite of short-long songs, vignettes and portraits, like a collection of handmade stamps or a YouTube compilation of sunrises. They feel handsewn but not at all ramshackle, and so it's fitting that this is a vinyl release: warm, solid, scratches strung together on a disc. "Names" is one minute long and full of silver hooks, all jumble and harmony. There's a more complicated progress to "Troops of Pure Silver" - advancing, retreating, testing the ground. Maps you can't trust, destinations that may no longer exist. Listening to that patient cello I imagine a field with buried chests, treasure or landmines, cows idling through the clover.

[buy The Cyrillic Typewriter, on limited edition vinyl, for just $20]

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