The soundtrack of NAV

Songs of Zarechye

The two sides of the Boundary are meant to sound different. Yav, the living side, is breath and wood: svirel, zhaleika, a frame drum, people singing. Nav, the side beyond, is string and hum: gusli over a drone, and nothing that breathes. Cross the Boundary with your eyes shut and you should still hear where you are.

012:44
The Lament
Плач
The title theme, and the only piece in the game with words. One woman sings a lament to Mokosh the spinner, so slurred that the words come through as almost-words. A wordless choir gathers behind her in the second half, over sparse gusli and a low bowed drone. Its one hope sits in the third verse: as long as someone says your name, you have not been drawn out of the yarn. The last two lines take even that back.
Title screen
- solo voice
- choir
- gusli

From the lament, third verse

Помяни меня, кто помнит.
Назови меня, кто знает.
Покуда имя по свету ходит —
покуда и аз есмь.

Remember me, whoever remembers.
Name me, whoever knows.
As long as my name walks the world,
so long I am.

Yav

This side. Breath and wood.

In every case

023:00
Yav
Явь
The first theme written for this side of the Boundary. A zhaleika plays a plaintive shepherd's tune over a gusli figure that repeats like hands at work, and a muffled frame drum keeps a slow pulse. Near the end the drum and strings fall away and only the reed is left.
Yav · In every case
- zhaleika
- gusli
- frame drum
033:00
Work
Работа
A svirel leads alone over a steady frame drum, at the pace of slow field work. You can hear the player take a breath at the end of every phrase. The mood is tired and plain, with a very small thread of hope.
Yav · In every case
- svirel
- frame drum
043:00
The Road
Дорога
A walking tune on the zhaleika that keeps stopping and setting off again. A wooden rattle keeps time somewhere far behind, like a cart you can hear but not see.
Yav · In every case
- zhaleika
- treshchotka
053:00
The Field at Noon
Поле в полдень
One high svirel and nothing under it. Long held breaths, then wide silences between the phrases. The emptiest piece on the Yav side: a field so large that one voice in it sounds lost.
Yav · In every case
- svirel
063:00
The Izba
Изба
A low wooden svirel recorded close, in a small timber room. The fingers on the holes and the player's breath are as loud as the notes themselves, and there is no other instrument at all.
Yav · In every case
- svirel
073:00
Evening
Вечер
A zhaleika and a svirel answer each other one phrase at a time and never play together, like two people talking on a porch at dusk. An unhurried frame drum sits underneath.
Yav · In every case
- zhaleika
- svirel
- frame drum
083:00
Harvest
Жатва
A women's choir sings in old Russian folk harmony, bare seconds and fifths, the words blurred into almost-words. Between their phrases a lone svirel answers. The tempo is the tempo of reaping by hand.
Yav · In every case
- choir
- svirel
093:00
Dawn
Заря
A low choir hums a drone without words, and a single zhaleika rises over it in a Slavic minor mode. It is unhurried and open-air, and you can hear the piper breathe.
Yav · In every case
- choir
- zhaleika
103:00
Remembrance
Помин
A memorial service for men's voices alone, with no instruments at all. A bass deacon intones in Church Slavonic, asking rest for the soul of the departed, and a small choir answers in plain Russian church harmony: “Lord, have mercy” three times, then “With the saints give rest.” It closes on a slow “Memory eternal” that fades into the dark of the church. A pomin is the meal held for the dead, and this is the service sung before it.
Yav · In every case
- church choir
113:00
Lullaby
Колыбельная
A village lullaby on svirel and soft gusli, the flute breathing gently between phrases. It sounds like someone keeping watch by the stove at night. Written for rest and nightfall, it joins the Yav pieces in every case.
Yav · In every case
- svirel
- gusli
123:00
The Churchyard
Погост
A duda holds a low, steady drone while a zhaleika plays a slow funeral tune above it. You hear the players' breath, and the wind across an open churchyard. There is a little warmth at the close, and not much.
Yav · In every case
- duda
- zhaleika

Case 1A Wedding Without a Bride

Only in this case

133:00
The Bride's Evening
Девичник
A wedding lament. On the last night before the wedding the bride's friends unbraid her hair, and she weeps for the life she is leaving. A zhaleika sings it over soft gusli, and women take a breath and hum between the phrases.
Yav · A Wedding Without a Bride
- zhaleika
- gusli
- choir
143:00
The Mill
Мельница
A svirel plays a slow, breathy tune over a soft wooden knock like a mill wheel turning, with a muffled frame drum and gusli beneath. Written for the mill in the first case, and heard only there.
Yav · A Wedding Without a Bride
- svirel
- frame drum
- gusli

Case 2Taken for Remembrance

Only in this case

153:00
The Fair
Ярмарка
A village fair at dusk, after the crowd has gone home. A wooden rozhok plays a tired melody, spoons click softly, and a balalaika is strummed once or twice. There is a small, stubborn warmth in it.
Yav · Taken for Remembrance
- rozhok
- spoons
- balalaika

Case 3The Noonday Reaper

Only in this case

163:00
The Sickle
Серп
Kugikly breathe a slow falling tune over light gusli, with a dry wooden rattle now and then, like a hot field under a heavy sun. The last phrase turns, just once, toward hope.
Yav · The Noonday Reaper
- kugikly
- gusli
- treshchotka
172:40
The Shop
Лавка
A gudok plays a heavy melody up close, rough at the edges, over plain gusli chords: a ledger of debts opened in a dim shop. A little bitter, with one gentle turn at the end. At two minutes forty it is the shortest piece here.
Yav · The Noonday Reaper
- gudok
- gusli