A Russian rock band that emerged during the glasnost era, Auktyon has reinvented itself. For their first album in 12 years, they called on several well-respected American musicians to fill out their sound.
Playing prominent roles on Girls Sing are John Medeski, guitarist Marc Ribot and Klezmatics’ trumpeter Frank London. Perhaps taking an unconscious page from Stravinsky, Auktyon’s music is intelligent yet relentlessly primitive, their rhythms a little sideways and with echoes of Russian folk music. The edgy American players push them toward what was once considered, back in the late days of the Cold War, the venturesome edges of vanguard rock.
