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Thorn1 - So Far as Fast Thorn1 - So Far As Fast
MP3 Album 2010 | Silber 091
11 tracks, 55 minutes
$5 (download only (256 kbps, ~92 megs))
Thorn1 hails from Russia & on their debut album they embrace the winter with blankets of guitar drone following in the tradition of Aarktica & Remora.

: Press release
: Listen to the track Drone
: Lyrics

Track Listing:
Organiq Grostee, Drone, We Are Frozen, Safe Trip, Untitled #3, Snow Is Abstract, And Death Shall Have No Dominion, Why Am I Here So Distant From My Old Life, Dissosense, Fall In Love (Or Fallen Love As You See), Welcome Home (Aarktica cover)
Reviews:
After learning a little of the history behind this album, it might not be surprising that it sounds a bit like an elegy – there is something of a funeral procession that moves steadily and subtly through each piece.
As Thorn1, musician Evegny Zhedya presented So Far As Fast as something of a farewell to his life in Russia before moving to Kiev, Ukraine. As a prelude to leaving,  saying goodbye to home and to friends, the album works exceptionally well to capture a bittersweet journey from one place to another.
The music presents a fairly turbulent range of emotions, yet more often than not it is subdued and sombre in effect. Through elongated, ethereal drones, blended with shades of post-rock, electronica and shoegaze, Evegny has created a dreamlike sense of separation and isolation; during which most pieces utilise either guitar, piano and accordian to elicit often searing melody, which both contrast and highlight the sense of loss.
Organiq Grostee, the opening track, is almost frightening, and probably would be had it been purely instrumental. It’s a little like the opening scene of a film, where an organ grinder is standing on the corner of an otherwise empty street -  one whose eerie presence has the capacity to inspire both  faint trepidation and a kind of comforting familiarity from the knowledge you’re not completely alone on that street.
Soon after, fourth track Safe Trip makes a rather definitive statement on the tone and perspective of the journey being related. It is a gorgous 8½ minutes of echoing guitar that rests on the cusp of the darkest moment before the dawn. As the sun rises, or in this case the rest of the album progresses, the light is cast on landscapes of various textures and temperatures.
This culminates in the final track, Welcome Home, a beautiful piano instrumental. It’s like listening to a heart simultaneously break and mend in slow motion – the triumph is tempered with tragedy, the hurt with healing, and the separation balanced with solace.
So Far As Fast is an eclectic mix, steeped in a similar sense of dreamy disorientation, the likes of which you feel when experiencing déjà vu – surreal and a little mysterious, but still…it is accompanied by the implicit knowledge that it belongs to you.
~ Satellite for Entropy

...the debut album by Russian band Thorn1 who according to the press release "embrace winter with blankets of guitar drone". Can't argue with that.
~ Burning World

Thorn1 was founded in 2005 in the Altai region of russia by Evgeny Zheyda as a side project of his post-grunge band Partisani, blending drone, shoegaze, electronics, & nature sounds.  So Far As Fast, the first official release, is filled with funeral hymns, snowstorms, the freezing breath of solitude, & the hope for a shining future.  Post angst music from Siberia.
~ Blotter - The Bad Acid Podcast

Back in 2005, Evgeny Zheyda formed Thorn1, in the High Altai, perhaps the best climbing ground in the world, away from the tourist trail and one of only two places I have ever hitch-hiked a helicopter flight, but that is another story all together. Since those days he has moved to Ukraine, where news of the latest material is a little slow in forthcoming.
Despite the image, the creative electronics is what makes this of real interest. Visions of high mountains and glaciers sweep over the mindset, as Thorn1, traverse an arête, the audience meanwhile watch crampons hold firmly, as ice picks crack in to position. This is music of its place, deftly cleaved in to an expanse of nature, the soundscape echoing sharply from pillars of rock with a tinkling reverb.
It is always a pleasure to hear music which is so at one with the landscape, we hear it from some of the remote Scandinavian bands, whereas the mainstream is influenced by the urban. Folk, classics, or perhaps a portrait of its space, Thorn1 can not fail but to transport the listener to a space far away from the issues of everyday life.
I hope they re-emerge from the Ukrainian wilderness to continue to challenge the listener with the contemporary experimentation which explores the complex geographic formations of the vast expanse of the High Altai.
~ Indie Bands Blog

Who needs lyrics when you’ve got birdsong and light sabre noises? I kid you not. Russia's Thorn1 may be most obscure, but has originality on their side. But that’s the nicest way of putting it. Another artist loosely falling under the ‘shoegaze’ fad, So Far As Fast does its best not to be categorised. ‘Organiq Grotsee’ is more or less a funeral hymn, and ‘Snow Is Abstract’ is just seven minutes of weirdly atmospheric synth noises that consist of no more than three notes. But amongst all this, there is a glimmer of hope: ‘(And Death Shall Have No Dominion)’ is almost your typical melancholy indie track, but it retains the same atmospheric feel as the rest of the album. Not a bad record exactly; it’s just a very acquired taste at best. 3/10
~ Blaise Ruston, The Digital Fix

Brian John Mitchell, the head of independent label Silber Records, sent me notice regarding a Russian shoegaze/drone band named, Thorn1. “Drone,” as it’s so appropriately titled, is isolating and drenched in reverb. It’s also rather lush and nice to listen to. This track is from Thorn1’s latest album, So Far As Fast.
~ Sean Caldwell, Letters from a Tapehead

Entriamo in un vortice di emozioni con l'album di debutto di Thorn1, ossia del russo Evgeny Zheyda con il suo progetto "So Far As Fast" per l'etichetta americana Silber Records.
Una turbolenza di emozioni, ampi spazi sonori riempiono il vuoto, la solitudine e l'angoscia di cupi paesaggi surreali che qui si animano sin dalle prime note insieme ad intensi freddi invernali, cosi come possiamo ascoltare dai testi di "Organiq Grostee", "And Death Shall Have No Dominion", "Why Am I Here So Distant From My Old Life" e "Dissosense".
Shoegaze e fusione elettronica di suoni che culmina in uno spirito armonico accompagnato dal pianoforte nella cover di Aarktica, è viva allora la speranza della sopravvivenza e del domani che verrà.
~ AloneMusic

Thorn1 si va a inserire tra quegli artisti della Silber come gli Aarktica e i Remora, che abbiamo da poco recensito: esploratori di suoni, più che musicisti tout court. A capo del progetto c'è Evgeny Zheyda, che ha deciso di dedicarsi completamente alla musica dopo una tragedia personale nel 2008, utilizzando l'album per dire addio ai suoi attuali amici e alla vita passata, una sorta di rottura definitiva.
Cosa ci aspetta quindi nell'album dell'artista russo? Lunghi excursus di chitarra drone (la magnifica Snow is abstract), gelide dichiarazioni metalliche (Organiq Grostee), coinvolgenti movimenti di chitarra e pianoforte (meravigliosa (And Death Shall Have No Dominion))... insomma di materiale ve n'è davvero tanto e tutto uniformemente interessante.
L'intera opera è permeata da un forte senso di tristezza e distacco da ogni sensazione umana, che Zheyda riesce a trasmettere utilizzando pochissimi mezzi (spesso solo una chitarra) e con la sua spettrale voce tenuta in sottofondo. In questo 'So far as fast' è stupendo, evocando davvero paesaggi desolati e innevati come solo chi li ha visti per ogni anno della sua vita, potrebbe fare.
A chiudere l'album, come giusta citazione, troviamo un'ottima cover pianofortistica di Welcome Home, guarda caso proprio degli Aarktica.
Insomma, Thorn1 ha cominciato la sua relazione con la Silber nel migliore dei modi, con un album pregno di buone idee, che mescola elettronica, drone e ambient in maniera intelligente e perfetta. Da ascoltare.
~ Damiano Gerli, Kathodik