Answered by Anton Brejestovski
Questions: Beautevil

It feels like that all the musicians of Caprice are highly educated in classical music, but is that true?
Yes, we all have classical background, but our interests expand much further than just classical music. I think classical background gives one excellent technical mastery, but it also very often limits one’s views in music. 

How difficult is it to compose an album like “Tales Of The Uninvited”?
It was a pleasure! It wasn’t difficult at all! 

Can you tell us more how the recording process works for an act like Caprice (with so many different musicians)?
In a very standard way – we record a click track, and then we record it instrument by instrument. In our early albums we practiced recording together, but obviously the sound is better when every instrument is recorded separately. As for providing dynamics, accents and other things that can be done best only during playing together, we simply rehearsed it as an ensemble. Then during the recording, everyone played with the imaginary partners.



Can you tell us how you came up with the Laoris language?
It simply dawned on me one day and began pouring down. It is impossible to invent a thing like this deliberately. I simply had to write it down, like a dictation. Sometimes notions, words and syntax rules were coming to my head so quickly, that I literally couldn’t write fast enough to catch up with this downpour! I am very lucky to be linguistically educated – that helped me not to get snowed under by such a mass of new grammar rules and script peculiarities. 

Why did you decide to create the Elvenmusic story?
Again, I have no explanation. People often wrongly think that I am a Tolkien freak. It is not true. I have a great respect for his work, and I really enjoy The Lord of the Rings in many aspects which are usually neglected, but Caprice are not a group which plays Tolkienesque music. When I am composing a song (and any song needs lyrics, and I’m not a great lyricist at all) I always need good poetry to go with the music. So one day I was reading The Fellowship of the Ring and when I came to Aragorn’s lay of Luthien Tinuviel, music simply overwhelmed me, and I wrote Of Beren and Luthien in ten or fifteen minutes (this song is now track 2 on The Evening of Iluvatar’s Children).   This was the start of Elvenmusic. Then, over a period of   almost eight years, I wrote about fifty or sixty “Elvenmusic” songs   (bit by bit moving away from Tolkien and carried away by my own vision of Laoris elves), of which forty (12+16+12)   tracks comprise the Trilogy.   

Will there be a new tale in the Elvenmusic story or will you go further with other material?
That’s a hard one :-) On the one hand, we’re a bit tired of Elvenmusic; on the other, if something gets written down with real inspiration, we won’t hesitate to release it. At the same time, now we’re doing a few other projects. The next Caprice album will be in Russian, and bear no relationship to elves at all. 

What’s important to know about the world of faeries?
They’re very different from humans. If a human gets to their world, a lot of faerie ways will have no explanation from a human point of view. It will be very difficult to act without knowing what reaction your doing may cause! The essence of their lives is expressing themselves through the forest, among plants and trees, making music, and enjoying themselves in the ways we don’t understand. At the same time they haven’t got a slightest idea of so many things that are an essential part of our lives – technology, money, politics, etc.

Would you like to be a faerie, why?
I would, for some time. The beauty of their music and their faces is breathtaking. The fresh energy of youth; the mixture of joy, sadness and exquisiteness they exude would be a drug for me very hard to resist!

Can you tell us more about the status of Caprice in Russia?
We’re getting better and better known with the course of time. But we’re not celebrities.

Is it difficult to get live performances outside Russia? Or do you feel that the music of Caprice is getting noticed in the rest of the world so there will be some live gigs in the future?
Oh yes, there will be gigs, I am sure. It is just a question of time. 



Would it be an idea to use the music of Caprice in a movie? Or to make a movie of your own?
I think our music could definitely fit certain types of movies. It will obviously be fantasy, but apart from that I feel a great compulsion to compose a soundtrack to a serious psychological drama. Also – this side of Caprice has never been made public on any of our CDs – having a Russian background, I feel a connection with one of the greatest tragedies in the history, Stalin’s totalitarian rule. We have a few works, which will be sooner or later released, portraying the fearful, stifling atmosphere of the devilish game called totalitarianism. 

Are there some Russian acts that you would recommend to our readers?
Yes, first of all I would name Far From Mind – a two-man project from the south of Russia. Their music is awfully different from Caprice, and is like nothing else – which for me is the first and foremost sign of real talent.  Also,  recently Moon Far Away have released yet another g reat album . And the mystical act Dvar, which also may at first totally confuse the listener because it breaks any stylistic rules being different from any other music. And Cyclotimia, whose pictures of the mad modern materialistic society are strikingly realistic.  

Something you always wanted to tell, but never was asked…
… about what days remain the brightest memories as the time flows by. For me these are the days of my long-distance flights. One day we were flying from Moscow to Tenerife with a stopover in Malta. We could see ten kilometres down without a single cloud. The islands in the Mediterranean, the coastline with the great cities of Algeria and Tunisia, the Atlas mountains – everything looked like an incredible map.

Sometimes I dream about a day, maybe thirty of forty years from now, when personal flying cars will be invented and we will own one. Just flying above the earth, exploring the landscapes is something I would like to spend weeks doing, as soon as our technology is advanced enough to offer it.