Lac Observation – Liquid Splinters Say Goodbye – CS

Track Listing

1. Ivan Bodhidharma (Аквариум/Akvarium cover)
2. Ravenna, Ohio, 20 Something and 5 (for The Clever Square)
3. Otter (the Transfiguration of Jason Molina)
4. Lost My Sandals in the Lake (Blues delle Rane)
5. Antler Springs
6. Liquid Splinters Say Goodbye

Notes

Years ago I had a friend in Russia, the Soviet Union was falling apart and he called me at home every now and then. He had figured out a way to scrounge phone calls. He entered a telephone booth, took apart the handset, arranged the wires following a pattern he had devised, stuck some pins in the body of the telephone and dialed my home number. I don’t know how he didn’t blow up.

Leonid spoke five or six languages ​​perfectly. He learned them by reading jokes.

I had contacted him first, finding his address in the Guerin Sportivo. There was a page where fans of sports memorabilia and gadgets could find contact details of other enthusiasts.

I was crazy about Eastern countries, so I took a pen and paper, stuck a Bari pin in the envelope and let the postman deliver my letter. Leonid responded by sending me the Spartak Moscow pin. I started cutting jokes out of puzzle magazines. Over the years I lost all interest in exchanging pennants, scarves and pins. I discovered that I liked music a lot.

Not knowing Bulat Okudzhava I made him choose. That’s how I found an Akvarium cassette in my cassette player. Perhaps the best cassette I received from Leonid. I don’t remember what was on it.

The exchange was this: he chose Russian music for me and in return I had the task of transcribing the lyrics of Albano and Romina Power’s songs for him.

He was an avid Albano fan, to the point of sending me Albano’s cassettes himself.

Even today I sometimes repeat Sharazad’s refrain in my head…

I don’t know what happened to Leonid, the last time he came into my life I was messing around in front of the Faculty of Languages, in Bari. In the general shouting, I distinctly heard someone pronouncing the name: “Leonid Tabolski”. A stranger.

Leonid had evidently found a way to also call other numbers in my city’s telephone book.

Obviously when Lac Observation sent me “Liquid Splinters Say Goodbye” I couldn’t help but think of Leonid.

Ivan Bodhidharma is the cover of a song by Akvarium.

Was Leonid aware of other telephone codes other than 080?

“Liquid Splinters Say Goodbye” is Lac Observation’s second album released on Almost Halloween Time Records in collaboration with Hvergelmir.

released September 25, 2023

Album credits

Recorded between 2020 and 2023 in Brussels, Naples and Sant’Agata de’ Goti on Tascam 4-track cassette recorder and finished on computer.

All songs written (mostly while byyyycicle riiiiding) by Gufo Mangiasale except for track 1 written by Boris Grebenshchikov, translated by Mikhail Morozov on russmus.net and adapted by Gufo Mangiasale, and track 4 written by Lucia Sole.

Hvergelmir Records 005
Almost Halloween Time Records 138

Gufo Mangiasale: guitars, vocals, banjo, bass, drum machine, percussions, musical saw, saxophone, melodica, chord organ, tapes, field recordings, engineering, mixing
Lucia Sole: guitar, vocals, invisible trumpet, bowed banjo, musical saw, goodbye pedals
Galileo Galeone: bass, pedals, mixing
Esp: drums, babylonian beard
—————————————
Jacopo del Deo: banjo on “Otter”
Giulio Erasmus: sax tapes on “Otter”
Gaz: spirit on “Ravenna”

Mastered by Nesey Gallons.
Cover art: Luigi Falagario