‘Маниш так, Ти тінью на стіні граєш, Знову ти мене гукаєш, Темна як спогад, Дика як повінь, Тиха як сповідь, В останній день’ (Темна, як спогад) / ‘You beckon, You play with a shadow on the wall, You call me again, Dark as a memory, Wild as a flood, Quiet as a confession, On the last day’ (Dark As A Memory)

From the bleakly foreboding opening chords to the title track Все по колу, знову (All In A Circle, Again), it is if something primal is stirring.  An ineffable sense of reaching back to the very origins of humanity to understand what drives our seemingly insatiable appetite for war.  Morwan is the solo project of Kyiv’s Alex Ashtaui.  Vse Po Kolu, Znovu is not a direct exploration of the frontline savagery of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, but rather of the insidious psychological consequences that flow from being sucked into the path of such horror.

It speaks to the violent unravelling of what you thought to be immutable, an uncertainty that seems without end, and an existential, unrelenting sense of dread.  It is this very sense of dread that infuses Morwan’s intensely rhythmic post-punk with a notably more muscular dynamic than previously, building on the darker evolution already evident on 2023’s Svitaye, Palaye.

The pounding dance inflected rhythms and droning guitar remain the album’s backbone, while the mournful Middle Eastern tinged melodies and forcefully chanted vocals draw upon Ashtaui’s shared Ukrainian-Arabic heritage to haunting effect.  The intensity is all enveloping from the industrial fuelled Без обличчя (Faceless) to the ominously danceable agitations of Мої дні (My Days) and from the detached menace of Остання мить (Last Minute) to the remorseless escalation of Чорні схили (Black Slopes), before the bleakly mesmeric close of Не чекай (Don’t Wait).  Rarely can the compulsion to dance and to despair at our own future have been so closely intertwined.