Nikolaj Nikitin - Directions & Connections (2022) Hi-Res

Two long-time musical partners, saxophonist Nikolaj Nikitin and pianist Ľuboš Šrámek, are releasing their fifth album under the proven label Altar. The recording Directions and Connections brings music full of stories, imagery and contrasting thoughts. At the same time, the album starts the creation of the own music publishing house Hlava XXII.

Countless shared experiences, long-standing friendship, musical compatibility – these are the unadulterated ingredients of the chemistry of the duo Nikolaj Nikitin and Ľuboš Šrámek. However, after the release of the previous albums of their Altar project, there was a period of pandemic quarantines and strict lockdowns. And right here, in a period of apparent musical silence, a new album was created.

In the case of the musical stories that we brought to the recording this time, our own moments of happiness, but also darker moments and experiences, were the inspiration. In this project, they intermingle and emerge one after the other in a completely random order. However, the boundaries between an uplifting emotion and a dark one often depend on the subjective feeling of the listener," says Nikolaj Nikitin, the author of most of the songs on the album.

In addition to the core and heart of Altar, the couple Nikitin-Šrámek, the original atmosphere of the recording is shaped by invited musicians - the unique tone of the violin of Lucia Harvanova together with the rain marimba of Kyril Stoyanov, the double bass of the legendary Juraj Griglák, or the ethereal winds - the flute of Sisa Michalides and the flugelhorn of Kornel-Fekete Kovács. The absence of percussion instruments is interesting.

On the album you will find eleven compositions, most of them from the pen of Nikolaj Nikitin and Ľuboš Šrámek. French baroque great Jean-Philippe Rameau and jazz genius John Coltrane also contributed unconsciously. The recording of the Directions and Connections album took place this time at home in Slovakia and resulted in the founding of their own music publishing house Hlava XXII.