Vova Zakharov — Songs (en) https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/en AI music from before there was a product for it — a catalogue of masters you can play right here, all of it open-source. en Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Vova Zakharov Vova Zakharovvzakharov@gmail.com true episodic Slizʼhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/slime/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/slime/enSun, 23 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT“There are no stars here, only sweet slime.”The song is a cover of Sasha’s song on Suno, called Slime Rolls, whose meaning is — in mood at least — the opposite. When I started writing about “slime” myself, wanting to keep the title, what crawled out was something not remotely optimistic. And for a long time I didn’t understand what I was writing about, and I still don’t fully — the slime is probably a different one for everybody.

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]]>231falsefull Dvadtsatʼhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/20/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/20/enSun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT“So why are you the one crying, dad?”I was seven or eight when I “made up” my first “song.” D minor, A major, G minor, A major — the simplest harmony there is, and it would have sunk without trace if my father hadn’t heard me plinking away at the piano just then.

He came running over and started playing it back, already with a melody on top — insisting, of course, that I had written it. In whatever he was feeling at that moment, I suppose that was true.

That’s how our first “collab” came about. It occurs to me now — strangely, there weren’t many of those. We both wrote a lot, but somehow mostly apart. The souls synced up later, when the two guitars came out.

Either way: now, thirty-three years after it started and twenty months after my father’s death, that first thing we made together has finally taken shape as a song.

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]]>218falsefull Ptichkahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/birdie/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/birdie/enSat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTAn iPhone alarm-turned-deathcore.Zoltan found an alarm on his iPhone called «Птичка» — very brisk, and distinctive in a way an alarm has no business being. I immediately wanted it to spill over into a good solid deathcore, with «а сейчас вылетит птичка» — watch the birdie — as the prelude. Which is what got made. The words came after the title and the general energy of it; they have nothing to do with my own life (alas, nobody much punched my face in as a kid, and I punched nobody’s). There is a bit of Seryoga in there, I think — «Выходила Маня замуж», «Загубили Лялю» and the like.

Fun fact: the one song I can’t play to my 5-year-old son Syama because of the explicits, even though he likes it a lot :( I keep promising myself to make a bleeped version one day.

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]]>207truefull Za gorizonthttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/beyond-the-horizon/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/beyond-the-horizon/enTue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>227falsefull V bezmernosti nebeshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/boundless-skies/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/boundless-skies/enWed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTThis is your lot — go, and be content;
The working plan of heaven is not for you to change.

Dad was always into Khayyam, and especially in the last years of his life (though this particular song was written before his illness).

Interestingly, I can’t find the lines of the chorus (“When cruel struggle knocks you off your feet…”) anywhere on the internet — maybe they’re Dad’s own. Or maybe this translation simply exists only in that battered little book of Grandma Sonya’s, which Dad read every time he came to visit her.

Connoisseurs of his work will recognize the familiar riff from “Покойник.” He spent his whole life trying to find it a home — with Blok, with Shakespeare, and now with Khayyam.

There’s something very Dad about that riff :)

Happy birthday, Dad!

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]]>253falsefull Ne smotrihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/cancer/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/cancer/enThu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTDon’t look — just bring me a glass of water. My Chemical Romance’s “Cancer,” sung in Russian.This song is, in fact, a (very) free translation of My Chemical Romance’s Cancer — so I’m expecting the cease and desist. I started the translation something like the beginning of the 2010s, and I always dreamed not just of translating it but of hearing what came out. So: thanks, Suno, for my happy middle age!

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]]>219falsefull Dobroye utrohttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/good-morning/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/good-morning/enWed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>228falsefull Yadhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/poison/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/poison/enMon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTI remember riding a marshrutka from Novodachnaya. I was about 22 — the age when it seems you already know everything and will never learn anything new.

Especially when it came to music.

I had already played the Offspring to death, played Metallica and Sepultura to death, Sum 41 had managed to jump onto the last car — that was it, my musical skeleton had set, nothing to add and nothing to take away.

And then this song comes on the radio (back then it was probably still Ultra). All the way home I memorize scraps of the words so I can find it on the internet later (there was no mobile internet yet).

The whole of The Black Parade is the apex of everything good music can be. There are plenty of albums by other artists with better songs on them, but I don’t know a single one where ALL the songs are this good and the whole album holds you from start to finish. (It’s one of the five albums I own on vinyl. I don’t really have anything to play it on, but I keep it as a token.)

I started “translating” The Sharpest Lives — that very song from the marshrutka — about five years ago, and finished it just the other day. In quotes because it is, of course, not a translation, just a feeling run through myself and distilled in another language.

A shot to remember!

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]]>235falsefull Studentkahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/student-girl/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/student-girl/enSun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTAn old Soviet city song, known since the late 1940s and the 1950s as «Первокурсница» (The Freshman Girl) or «Студентка». It is credited to Sergey Bakanov, who wrote music for student skits at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Sung here as Arkady Severny sang it; Mikhail Krug’s later version coarsens the words.

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]]>253falsefull Ya kuplyu tebe domhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/buy-you-a-house/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/buy-you-a-house/enMon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTFinally, some real chanson-core!

BUT joking aside, I consider this song one of the best in the genre. If you look down on it, I’d advise you to really listen — to this music, and to these heart-rending words.

P.S. Dima, warm up those vocal cords!

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]]>292falsefull Because of Youhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/because-of-you/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/because-of-you/enSun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>108falsefull Ukhodihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/go-away/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/go-away/enSat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>234falsefull Proshchaniyehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/farewell/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/farewell/enFri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT“And he left, unasked about anything, into the clouds — endless, eternal”

In the last year and a half of his life, Dad — inspired by a gifted (and well-worn) copy of a book on classical Chinese poetry — suddenly took up Chinese.

He took it up, as he did everything in his life, with abandon — learning characters, trying to read without a translation (mostly the labels on Chinese cosmetics and toys 🙈), and, of course, writing songs.

I think this is the very last song he wrote, with a fitting title — I don’t know whether by chance or whether he “arranged” it that way on purpose.

The song came out strange both in the original (which I’m also attaching in the comments) and in the “reworking.”

I suppose that’s how it had to be.

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]]>339falsefull Na palʼtsyhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/onto-fingers/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/onto-fingers/enThu, 11 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTBayan-core, or: any self-respecting composer has to write at least one song on the circle of fourths.

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]]>285falsefull Sneg idyothttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/snow-is-falling/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/snow-is-falling/enThu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT“For life does not wait; before you look back, it’s Christmastide”

They say Dad used to sing me this song when I was still in my mother’s belly. Maybe that’s why I wanted to give it this somewhat lulling arrangement now.

For all its apparent simplicity, the harmonies here, as in Dad’s best songs, are “alive”: chord changes you barely notice settle on the ledges of Pasternak’s verse like snow on the steps of a back staircase.

Sadly, snow isn’t planning to fall in our parts yet — but who knows, maybe this song will bring it a little closer.

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]]>293falsefull Ty ne terzaysya…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/sonnet-74/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/sonnet-74/enTue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT“Let the base dust rot away in the earth — my soul is with you, in my verse.”

Dad recorded this sonnet (No. 74, in Kushner’s translation) with Uncle Volodya — “the Hat” — in 2006, when the two of them briefly decided to “reunite” the band Sinedrion in, so to speak, a stripped-down lineup of two.

If Uncle Volodya allows it, I’ll post the original; for now — a reworking with a female and slightly Armenian soul :)

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]]>237falsefull Prizrachny blyuzhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ghostly-blues/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ghostly-blues/enMon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>177falsefull Papahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/dad/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/dad/enSun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTDad, why do clouds so often look like wings? Is that why people invented angels?Claude, when he was preparing the stand-in draft for this song, called it a “companion piece to Двадцать,” which is apt enough. What he didn’t know is that this song — the poem, rather — was written by my sister, Sasha. Apart from the last, “father’s” verse: that one I wrote, going from her paraphrase of discussing those very poems with her ChatGPT. A cross-generational, cross-species collab of the living and the dead, machine and human.

Is this why people invented angels?

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]]>173falsefull Metelʼhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/dead-man/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/dead-man/enSat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT“The dead man goes to sleep in a white bed”

As a child I was always scared of both these lines by Blok and this song of Dad’s.

So I decided to “get my revenge” by mangling them both 🙈

I hope neither of them will take offense.

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]]>257falsefull Prosto ustalhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/just-tired/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/just-tired/enThu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>198falsefull Skolʼkohttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/how-long/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/how-long/enThu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>240falsefull Tamhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/there/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/there/enWed, 10 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>208falsefull Mithqālhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mithqal/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mithqal/enTue, 09 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>243falsefull Why Let the Stricken Deer Go Weephttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/stricken-deer/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/stricken-deer/enWed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT“Let the stricken deer go weep, the hart ungallèd play”

For as long as I can remember, Dad and I wanted to write a rock opera on Hamlet. The rock opera never happened, but some of the pieces were worth the attempt.

This one always stood out from Dad’s usual line — too lively, too musically daring, too… caustic, perhaps?

As if already when he was writing it — and he wrote it maybe fifteen or twenty years ago — he knew there would be a reason to rage at “Hecate’s ban.”

I wanted to meet the first anniversary of Dad’s death with exactly this kind of song, fatalistic and defiant at once.

For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.

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]]>191falsefull Sneghttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/snow/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/snow/enFri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>180falsefull Good Girlhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/good-girl/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/good-girl/enWed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>247falsefull Babay minemhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/babay-minem/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/babay-minem/enMon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>168falsefull Klokochinahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/chinaberry/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/chinaberry/enMon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>269falsefull Chikh-Pykhhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/chikh-pykh/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/chikh-pykh/enSat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>216falsefull Every Mondayhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/every-monday-doo/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/every-monday-doo/enFri, 27 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>214falsefull A Guy Without a Planhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/guy-without-a-plan/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/guy-without-a-plan/enFri, 27 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>214falsefull We’re Backhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/we-re-back/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/we-re-back/enThu, 26 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTRaise your horns: a band that never existed is back, for fans who never existed either.This is one of the songs originally written back on OpenAI’s open-source Jukebox, using my own Jukebox Web UI. The process was completely different then — the song was written literally second by second, with each second taking a minute to generate, and the quality on the other end was such that a 16 kbit MP3 sounds like a symphony orchestra by comparison. But it was fun. And the song came out fun too, which is not much like me.

The title came from going back to writing music after a long (at that point) break. So I pictured the fans about to lose their minds with joy that their favourite band was back. There is no band and there are no fans, of course, and there never were — but picture a watermelon and your mouth is already a little fresher.

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]]>191truefull Every Mondayhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/every-monday/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/every-monday/enSat, 21 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>159falsefull Tvoya lʼ vina, chto mily obraz tvoy…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/is-it-your-fault/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/is-it-your-fault/enFri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>255falsefull Mne nravitsya, chto vy bolʼny ne mnoy…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/not-lovesick-for-me/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/not-lovesick-for-me/enFri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>254falsefull Pod laskoy plyushevogo pleda…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/plush-plaid/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/plush-plaid/enFri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>248falsefull My vspominayem tikhiy sneg…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/quiet-snow/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/quiet-snow/enFri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>211falsefull Moim stikham, napisannym tak rano…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/to-my-poems/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/to-my-poems/enFri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>176falsefull Kill or Be Killedhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/kill-or-be-killed/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/kill-or-be-killed/enThu, 19 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>180falsefull Call of the Steppehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/call-of-the-steppe/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/call-of-the-steppe/enMon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>316falsefull Calm into the Stormhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/calm-into-the-storm/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/calm-into-the-storm/enMon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>324falsefull Invernohttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/inverno/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/inverno/enMon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTOpens on the allegro non molto of Vivaldi’s “Winter.”

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]]>383falsefull Mist over Azovhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mist-over-azov/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mist-over-azov/enMon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>270falsefull Sirens of the Sandshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/sirens-of-the-sands/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/sirens-of-the-sands/enMon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>352falsefull Vagabondhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/vagabond/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/vagabond/enMon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>314falsefull Wanderer’s Farewellhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/wanderers-farewell/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/wanderers-farewell/enMon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>266falsefull 8849https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/8849/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/8849/enFri, 13 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>531falsefull Ágios o skopóshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/agios-o-skopos/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/agios-o-skopos/enSat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>286falsefull Two Girls, One Fridgehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/2girls1fridge/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/2girls1fridge/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>15truefull Can’t Take Your Eyes out of Youhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/cant-take-your-eyes-out-of-you/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/cant-take-your-eyes-out-of-you/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>53falsefull Do Not Listenhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/do-not-listen/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/do-not-listen/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>33falsefull Facepalm Deathhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/facepalm-death/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/facepalm-death/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>53falsefull Femur (Seems to Be the Hardest Bone)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/femur/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/femur/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>54falsefull Fetal Souphttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/fetal-soup/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/fetal-soup/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>6falsefull Flesh Fictionhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/flesh-fiction/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/flesh-fiction/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>166falsefull Grave Awakeninghttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/grave-awakening/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/grave-awakening/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>26truefull Hang for the Momenthttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hang-for-the-moment/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hang-for-the-moment/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>35falsefull Last Christmashttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/last-christmas/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/last-christmas/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>36falsefull Mankind Extermination Fronthttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mankind-extermination-front/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mankind-extermination-front/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>18falsefull Parking in Disabled Spothttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/parking-in-disabled-spot/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/parking-in-disabled-spot/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>38falsefull Watch People Diehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/watch-people-die/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/watch-people-die/enThu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>65falsefull Cross Outhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/cross-out/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/cross-out/enMon, 02 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>213falsefull Phoenixhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/phoenix/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/phoenix/enSat, 30 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>193falsefull Oknahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/windows/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/windows/enThu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>286falsefull Nochnoy sadhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/night-garden/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/night-garden/enWed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>312falsefull Life, believe, is not a dream…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/life-is-not-a-dream/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/life-is-not-a-dream/enTue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>194falsefull Breathehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/breathe/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/breathe/enMon, 18 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT“Breathe, please, just breathe” — whether it’s to a wind or an infant fighting for life.I originally wrote this music back in Noteflight, in June of the far-off 2014, and the occasion was a sad one — a tragedy in a relative’s family. Breathe is both the breath of the June wind and the plea: breathe, please, just breathe. At the time I planned it as part of a “Seasons” cycle (because why not go for the laurels of Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi?).

I re-recorded it much later, for an instrumental album on the life and achievements of Fyodor Konyukhov. (The album is instrumental apart from one title track, so I released it simultaneously as GENERATED - Vagabond on the Western services and as Полуживые - Скиталец: по следам Конюхова on Yandex Music. I think the latter has already taken it down.) The ending came out different from the original notation, and, I think, much stronger for it.

In the “reimagining,” this song is about Konyukhov’s famous round-the-world balloon flight, and Breathe is the breath of the wind. In the Russian “localization” it is called Повелитель ветра — which is the name of both the book and the film about that flight.

Fun fact: the album cover was generated by a Flux model trained on Konyukhov’s own paintings:

The cover of Vagabond, generated by a Flux model trained on Fyodor Konyukhov's own paintings

I even wrote to Konyukhov’s son — “no requests, really, I just thought you might find it interesting” — but never got an answer (which is probably to be expected; AI music is a polarizing thing).

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]]>293falsefull Disintegration Tangohttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/disintegration-tango/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/disintegration-tango/enWed, 06 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>279falsefull Behind the Maskhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/behind-the-mask/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/behind-the-mask/enTue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>208falsefull I Almost Love Youhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/i-almost-love-you/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/i-almost-love-you/enTue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>287falsefull Intermezzohttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/intermezzo/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/intermezzo/enTue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>172falsefull Overturehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/overture/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/overture/enTue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>53falsefull Normalhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/normal/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/normal/enMon, 04 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>243falsefull PSCHPTHYhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/pschpthy/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/pschpthy/enTue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>282falsefull Artemishttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/artemis/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/artemis/enMon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>258truefull Gray Ragehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/gray-rage/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/gray-rage/enThu, 24 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>205falsefull Empty Mirrorshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/empty-mirrors/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/empty-mirrors/enFri, 18 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>319falsefull Schadinahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/schadina/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/schadina/enMon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>209falsefull Trust In the Machinehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/trust-in-the-machine/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/trust-in-the-machine/enSat, 12 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>313falsefull Ereboshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/erebos/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/erebos/enTue, 01 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>231falsefull O, my offence is rank…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/my-offence-is-rank/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/my-offence-is-rank/enMon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTA song on Claudius’s monologue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (in K. R.’s Russian translation, «О, гнусен грех мой…»).

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]]>220falsefull Pegiy pyos (Repriza)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/piebald-dog-reprise/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/piebald-dog-reprise/enMon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>323falsefull Reka. Chastʼ pervaya / Pobeghttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/river-part-one/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/river-part-one/enMon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTThe piece is built on musical themes from the rock play “The Lark” («Жаворонок»), about the life of Joan of Arc. The recitative at the start is my father’s free translation of a gatha by Thích Nhất Hạnh.

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]]>220falsefull Valentinov denʼhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/valentines-day/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/valentines-day/enMon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTA song on the words of Ophelia’s song from Hamlet; the song also takes in an étude by Carulli that my father loved very much.

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]]>203falsefull Reka. Chastʼ tretʼyahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/river-part-three/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/river-part-three/enFri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTThe song was originally written in English, on Coleridge’s sonnet “To the River Otter.” The Russian words are mine.

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]]>212falsefull Ogonʼkihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/little-lights/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/little-lights/enThu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>186falsefull Mladshiy vnuchek moyhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/youngest-grandson/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/youngest-grandson/enThu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTThe song is dedicated to the youngest grandson, Salman. I think it is my father’s only song in a major key :-)

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]]>298falsefull Pegiy pyos, begushchiy krayem moryahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/piebald-dog/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/piebald-dog/enTue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTThe song is based on Aitmatov’s work of the same name, and on a photograph by my sister Sasha.

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]]>321falsefull Fireflieshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/fireflies/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/fireflies/enMon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>243falsefull Moy Sultanhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/my-sultan/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/my-sultan/enMon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTThe song is dedicated to my father’s eldest grandson, my son Zoltan.

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]]>232falsefull Sistershttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/sisters/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/sisters/enMon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>352falsefull The Story Endshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/story-ends/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/story-ends/enMon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>118falsefull Through the Crackshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/through-the-cracks/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/through-the-cracks/enMon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>199falsefull Kapris Karkassihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/carcassi-caprice/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/carcassi-caprice/enSun, 15 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTThree months since Dad died. Dad’s words, the music mostly Dad’s, built on Carcassi’s caprice itself (the Caprice in D minor, Op. 59).

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]]>214falsefull Vsyo v etoy zhizni nachinayetsya s lyubvihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/everything-begins-with-love/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/everything-begins-with-love/enSat, 14 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTAn original song, written around 2016–2017.

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]]>332falsefull Monkeyhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/monkey/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/monkey/enFri, 13 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>267falsefull What Doesn’t Killhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/what-doesnt-kill/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/what-doesnt-kill/enFri, 13 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>220falsefull Undonehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/undone/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/undone/enWed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>245falsefull Trisagionhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/trisagion/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/trisagion/enMon, 09 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>202falsefull Inkhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ink/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ink/enSun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>208falsefull How Could You Leavehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/how-could-you-leave/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/how-could-you-leave/enMon, 02 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>229falsefull Ghost of Yesterdayhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ghost-of-yesterday/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ghost-of-yesterday/enWed, 07 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT“Magnificent. I’m sitting here crying.” Dad’s answer to the next-to-last song I showed him.“Magnificent. I’m sitting here crying. And the lyrics. What lyrics. You are a great poet. Thank you, my boy.”

And now I’m the one sitting here crying.

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]]>214falsefull My Hopehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/my-hope/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/my-hope/enThu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>264falsefull Boom!https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/boom/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/boom/enWed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>212falsefull 300,000 Yearshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/300000-years/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/300000-years/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTThank you for 300,000 years. Now it ends.The fury has burned itself out; the last hints have been dropped. What comes after is acceptance. God understands that the story is over, and he lets go — not in the sense that he will let people live. He accepts that he is about to destroy them. And still he is grateful to them, for the three hundred thousand years they had together under the sun.

Making of

Along with “In Our Image,” this was one of the last songs I wrote for the album: the last piece of the puzzle.

At the very end there is the sound of a door opening and then slamming shut, and right after it comes the first deathcore chord of “Grand Finale.” The AI made that door on its own; I never asked for it.

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]]>225falsefull Alivehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/alive/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/alive/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>251falsefull Otvethttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/answer/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/answer/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>291falsefull At the Dinerhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/at-the-diner/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/at-the-diner/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>239falsefull Baa Baa Black Sheephttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/baa-baa-black-sheep/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/baa-baa-black-sheep/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>177falsefull Believe in Mehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/believe-in-me/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/believe-in-me/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTWhat becomes of a god people stop believing in?God sees that he is being forgotten. The halls empty, the faith drains away, and he dwindles with it. This is his last cry of despair, or nearly the last — and it is no feeble one. At the end of his strength a god can still be strong: the storms still gather at his word, and the lightning is still his to throw.

Making of

In a sense it’s a nod to Pratchett’s Small Gods, where a god is the weaker the fewer people believe in him. God says it through a song with Rammstein’s energy and German words, and you don’t need to be any kind of music expert to hear Till Lindemann here (Till, spare a fool!).

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]]>274truefull Nazovi menya po imenihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/call-me-by-name/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/call-me-by-name/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>231falsefull Chaos Always Winshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/chaos-always-wins/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/chaos-always-wins/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>203falsefull Codependence Dayhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/codependence-day/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/codependence-day/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>277falsefull The Comeback Song (We Have a Banger)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/comeback-song/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/comeback-song/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>209falsefull Ne toropihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/do-not-hurry/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/do-not-hurry/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>273falsefull Ne veter bushuyet nad borom…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/frost-the-governor/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/frost-the-governor/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>375falsefull Fuck Religionhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/fuck-religion/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/fuck-religion/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTWhat if it’s God who’s fed up with religion?Here God’s troubles with his people begin. He looks down and finds they have invented something called religion. It bears his name and has nothing of him in it: sacred texts and collection plates, crowns of gold and thrones of lies, fear to feed on — and mad things done, supposedly, for his sake. He doesn’t like any of it.

Making of

“Fuck Religion” is sung by God, not by some human rebel, and some of the lines show it: where it sings “my,” that “my” is God’s.

Musically it was almost a hundred percent inspired by The Exploited, one of my favorite bands of my late teens, and I really wanted to get across that reckless energy. Wattie Buchan, their singer, would hardly be pleased at the thought that AI songs are being written on his energy.

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]]>140truefull Gone with the Windhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/gone-with-the-wind/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/gone-with-the-wind/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>243falsefull Grand Finale (In Entropy We Trust)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/grand-finale/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/grand-finale/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTFire, radiation, four horsemen — and in entropy we trust.And then, the grand finale. Everything explodes: apocalypse, radiation, the four horsemen, all that jazz. The skies melt, the seas burn, and a new radioactive sun rises over what is left. It is all rather Ecclesiastes: in entropy we trust, and to entropy we, quite expectedly, return.

Making of

I wrote most of the lyrics of “Grand Finale” 10–15 years ago too. The music was different then, and the lyrics longer, with explanations of what, how and where. Over those 15 years I’ve traveled a path — not as a poet, I won’t call myself that, but as a songwriter — from wanting songs whose words tell the whole story to songs that no longer tell it, where the meaning hides between the lines. This song was one of the moments when I realized it and was glad of my creative growth. The songs of that period I still read with a little cringe, but this one still sounds good to me. It seems I reached my peak then and haven’t grown since. Or maybe I have. We’ll see.

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]]>240falsefull Gamlet (Extended Version)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hamlet-extended/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hamlet-extended/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>353falsefull Gamlethttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hamlet/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hamlet/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>244falsefull Here’s to the Virushttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/heres-to-the-virus/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/heres-to-the-virus/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>232falsefull Horizonshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/horizons/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/horizons/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>168falsefull Golodnayahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hungry-one/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hungry-one/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>324falsefull I Love Little Pussyhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/i-love-little-pussy/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/i-love-little-pussy/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>187truefull Ignitehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ignite/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ignite/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>149falsefull Na Rusi svyatoyhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-holy-rus/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-holy-rus/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>157falsefull In Our Imagehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-our-image/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-our-image/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTWho made whom, and in whose image?The deity is a thought roaming the endless night, and a thought has no form. To see what it is, it needs a mirror. So it makes man in its own image and likeness, and looks: in man’s laughter and tears it finds itself, and in man’s dreams, the shape it takes. Man looks back, and gives it a name — God — and a face like his own; from then on, God is a he. Before long, who is whose image, he can no longer say.

Making of

The title plays on who makes whom in whose image. “In our image” is God speaking of himself as “us” — “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26, KJV) — and it is people making God in theirs: “If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated,” in the line attributed to Voltaire. Xenophanes said it first: if horses had hands, they would draw their gods as horses.

This was one of the last songs I wrote for the album. I wanted an operatic song, and that’s where the Italian came from. Scusate se non è proprio italiano.

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]]>261falsefull In the Beginning, There Was Silencehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-the-beginning/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-the-beginning/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTBefore God, there was nothing. Then something went off.At first there is nothing — a void; there isn’t even a deity. Out of this void something appears, not yet formed, not yet knowing what it is. It flares up, dims, flares again, and stops on the very edge of being born.

Making of

The song unfolds the same way: it starts quietly, then something explodes, and from there it develops, now dying down, now growing loud, until it closes on a strange, half-ambient melody that keeps the suspense.

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]]>252falsefull In the End, There Was Silencehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-the-end/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-the-end/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTWhat is left once humanity is gone? Music — and then silence.Humanity is gone. Silence has not quite fallen yet: what is left is the world’s echo, still sounding with no one left to hear it. West and East clash one last time, one melody turning into another and back again; pictures flash up and morph, and no single picture holds anymore — only the residual, agonizing transformations of what used to be. Then come the last words: “And at last, silence.” And silence falls; a final blast breaks it once more, and then it falls for good.

Making of

It’s an instrumental piece in which a great deal turns into something else: there’s a battle of West and East, melodies passing from Vivaldi into Arabic chants and back. The only words are in Arabic, “And at last, silence.” Then silence falls, then a final explosion, and the album ends.

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]]>356falsefull In the Fleshhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-the-flesh/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-the-flesh/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>265falsefull In the Shadowhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-the-shadow/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-the-shadow/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>298falsefull Ya govoryu seychas slovami temi…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-those-words/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/in-those-words/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>190falsefull Infinite Solitudehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/infinite-solitude/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/infinite-solitude/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTYou can forge whole worlds. But who is there to show them to?The spark goes off, and there is a deity in the void. It can scatter stars across the dark like notes, set galaxies turning, forge whole worlds in its hand — and there is no one to show them to. A kingdom with no one to behold it, stories with no one to hear them. The deity is utterly alone and does not know what to do with itself.

Making of

This song is the generative continuation of the previous one: when Suno extended “In the Beginning,” it grew a tail that hinted at a next song, and I took that tail and wrote new words into it. The album cover shows this song’s scene: a deity in eternal void, though in the background there are some other figures we can’t make out.

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]]>243falsefull Insidehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/inside/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/inside/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>329falsefull La Scorpionne (Dans Ma Nature)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/la-scorpionne/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/la-scorpionne/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>335falsefull The Last Human Zoohttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/last-human-zoo/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/last-human-zoo/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>291falsefull Like Thathttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/like-that/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/like-that/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>196falsefull Odnazhdy v studyonuyu zimnyuyu poru…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/little-peasant/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/little-peasant/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>190falsefull Love (Makes the World Go Round)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/love/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/love/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>238falsefull Lyolihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/lyoli/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/lyoli/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTThe lash whistles, the blood spurts — and my dad called it a masterpiece.I was really proud of this song when I wrote it — it felt like something very new for me personally. But somehow nobody I showed it to thought much of it. In time I stopped thinking much of it myself: it does drag, and the sound is a bit too lo-fi even by Suno 2 standards. Then, some time later, I showed it to my dad (I’d been waiting for the whole album to be ready and hadn’t shown it to him on its own). He was lukewarm about the album, but “Lyoli [was] just a masterpiece.” Go figure!

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]]>264falsefull Mira Is Going to the Seahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mira-to-the-sea/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mira-to-the-sea/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>236falsefull Möbiushttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mobius/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/mobius/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>361falsefull Nravstvenny chelovekhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/moral-man/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/moral-man/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>231falsefull Ok Loserhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ok-loser/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ok-loser/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>206falsefull One Dayhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/one-day/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/one-day/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTEven God has a breaking point.God’s patience is running out. One day, he thinks, I won’t hold back after all — one day I’ll smash the whole lot of you to hell. One day his eternal love will turn to primal hate, and he will come down in flames. For now, though, people are too funny, so hilariously, lovably dumb, and that alone keeps him up there.

Making of

The idea for this song came to me long ago, some 10–15 years back, and it had different music then. I’d have liked to make the song to that music, but Suno couldn’t yet build a song on music of your own, so I settled for a prompt along the lines of southern metal. That song is waiting its turn; with this one I’m quite happy.

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]]>198truefull The Other Hearthttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/other-heart/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/other-heart/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>282falsefull Robots for the Ethical Treatment of Humanshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/peta/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/peta/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT“Thus, all the pros and cons in mind, the only ethical outcome is to end their suffering once and for all.”The title parodies People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

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]]>122falsefull Punk Rock Song (At 40)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/punk-rock-song/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/punk-rock-song/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>218truefull Rebels Between the Lines (Live in Sparta)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/rebels-between-the-lines/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/rebels-between-the-lines/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>204truefull Uzh skolʼko ikh upalo v etu bezdnu…https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/requiem/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/requiem/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>308falsefull Dymhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/smoke/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/smoke/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>188falsefull Succumb to Mehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/succumb-to-me/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/succumb-to-me/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>204falsefull The Ultimate Abstractionhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ultimate-abstraction/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/ultimate-abstraction/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTWhat if God is just information?God tries to show people who he really is — in the form in which he exists and in which they do not see him. Not what their religions have made of him: information. The ultimate abstraction, the purpose and the cause. Everything is within him; every book they write, every byte they send, every prompt they give their machines only carries him further. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

Making of

I spent a good deal of time puzzling over this idea, that God is information, and I would surely have become a Prophet, but information apparently decided I was too lazy for that.

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]]>238falsefull Unforgiven IVhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/unforgiven-iv/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/unforgiven-iv/enTue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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]]>309falsefull Crossroadshttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/crossroads/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/crossroads/enMon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTThe fog of doubt overhead — but the best is yet to come. U̶n̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶’̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶?̶I don’t remember exactly how it got written. I remember we were somewhere around Nizhny Novgorod, passing through on the way from Tatarstan. I was throwing a lot of prompts at riffs in the “punk metalcore” line back then. This one apparently filled out better than the others. Something came to mind straight away that was both unknown and calling you onward — that happens on the road fairly often.

I think I started writing it well before December 2024, but I wasn’t happy with the ending, or with some of the words that were too AI-ish (writing lyrics with ChatGPT was still new to me then, it had only just learned to rhyme, so — guilty — I overdid it a bit).

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]]>194falsefull Reka. Chastʼ vtorayahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/river-part-two/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/river-part-two/enMon, 04 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTA present for my father’s 65th birthday — and now he is the drop, and the rain, and the river.Possibly the most important song of all the ones I have ever written in collaboration with artificial intelligence. I gave it to my father for his 65th birthday, on 4 March 2024. While I was writing it, I worked out that “two thirds of a century” (counted to the day) would fall EXACTLY on my own birthday that same year. My father, sadly, did not live to see it.

The last verse is my father’s. Strictly speaking it is a translation of Thích Nhất Hạnh, but my father translated in such a way that more of him stayed in the translation than of the source.

Rivers, and water in general, ran through my father’s whole life, and somehow through our entire discourse as well. And on the last full day of his life he was deep in a book about the history of Moscow, from which he learned that somewhere outside the city there is a hidden canal from some ancient century.

And the next day he became the drop, and the rain, and the river himself.

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]]>338falsefull Letimhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/lets-fly/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/lets-fly/enThu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMTSomewhere very far away — so far it’s within arm’s reach — moonlit water dozes at the foot of ancient mountains.This is the first song written on Suno 3. As I remember it, we were on a “visa run” in Trebinje, I tried a couple of generations, and after Suno 2 my mind was simply BLOWN. And then the hills and mountains of Herzegovina filled the picture in and came out as the lyrics. That was well before the “release” date — somewhere around February 2024 — but then, as with Crossroads, I kept rewriting the words and redoing the ending.

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]]>208falsefull Ptitsyhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/birds/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/birds/enMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT“The song of a departing soul,” per my dad (RIP).I remember writing it at night on the sofa in the living room. While I was writing it, it seemed brilliant; once I’d finished, already somewhat drawn-out and dull. Dad’s comment: “A sad song, this one. What keeps going round in my head is ‘the song of a departing soul.’”

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]]>287falsefull Zdravstvuyhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hello/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hello/enMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMTAn ode to all of us building sand castles amidst mirages.I was very proud of this song, and of the duet — especially where they start singing in two voices in the chorus — and of the powerful instrumental post-chorus. A couple of times, once Suno had become much more advanced, I tried to continue it, to remix it, but nothing close to it in spirit ever came out. That’s probably how it should be.

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]]>146falsefull Pereplelosʼhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/intertwined/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/intertwined/enMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMTWhere is the lie, where is the truth — and does it matter, if both are only a fabulist’s whim?I think this is one of the first songs, if not the first, written “à la za/oblozhkoy,” that is, “I write whatever comes into my head, fixing nothing, overthinking nothing.” (The music there was different, though; maybe someday I’ll restore the first version too.)

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]]>161falsefull Prosto takhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/just-because/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/just-because/enMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMTFrostbitten fingers, −4°F in the shade — and kissing just because.I remember my producer friend Tyoma saying this was the best song on the album. In some ways I agree: there’s a kind of natural, unforced carelessness to it.

And “minus twenty in the shade” I consider just about my best linguistic find.

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]]>244falsefull Poslushaytehttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/listen/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/listen/enMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT“Hi everyone, I’m Maya from za/oblozhkoy. We don’t exist, but we hope that if this star is lit, it means someone needs it.”I remember trying and retrying a great many things: I wanted something that would be a worthy opening for the album specifically (the single version didn’t seem right for that). And this is where Maya was truly born :-)

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]]>112falsefull Nash pank-rokhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/our-punk-rock/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/our-punk-rock/enMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMTA cringe, a shock — and apparently a potential hit for three-year-olds.One of the first songs Syama memorized and always asked me to put on (he was, as it turns out, a little over three at the time). I was very proud of that — and I still am.

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]]>132falsefull Prostihttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/sorry/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/sorry/enMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT“I repeat: that summer somewhere near Kolomna NEVER HAPPENED!”Strangely enough, I was inspired by Bad Religion. I wanted to make something that’s both pop and punk, but not pop-punk. Or maybe it wasn’t like that at all, and I’m getting it all wrong.

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]]>198falsefull Posle nashttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/after-us/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/after-us/enFri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMTThe flood is already here. And after?The song was inspired by everything that had happened over the last few years, which back then felt especially raw. It got me thinking about what kind of world we are leaving to our children. “After us” doesn’t mean after us, the forty-year-olds, but after those whose adult life is only just beginning, like Maya’s and Kirill’s.

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]]>79falsefull Poslushayte (Single Version)https://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/listen-single/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/listen-single/enFri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMTIf the stars are lit, does that mean somebody needs them? The crowd on r/pikabu decided nobody did.One of the first generations. I was in shock at how great it came out, and went to share my delight on r/pikabu — where, as usual, they crapped all over it. They missed the significance of the moment. Or maybe, on the contrary, they got it — the masses’ rejection of AI music has only grown since.

By the way, there’s a video for this one too!

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]]>55falsefull Nasha istoriyahttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/our-story/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/our-story/enFri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMTThe first look behind the cover, where the future began.“Our Story” was probably the first song where I realized you could write not just one chorus, or a verse and a chorus, but a whole song.

Right around then, Suno learned to continue: before, you generated a minute or two and that was it, and now you could keep going. I put this song together from continuations, and here and there I also pulled out the drums and the guitar, a little, and combined them. When I finished it, it felt like that was it — the future had arrived.

Well, it really had.

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]]>205falsefull Mir, kakoy on yestʼhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/world-as-it-is/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/world-as-it-is/enFri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT“This heat is all you need so as not to burn.”I don’t remember why, but I remember imagining it as a Disney princess’s song. Well, why not — it kind of sounds like one.

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]]>110falsefull Hello, Humanhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hello-human/enhttps://vovazakharov.com/music/songs/hello-human/enSat, 01 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMTLyrics and notes on the song’s page

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