It’s almost a year since fantasy fans enjoyed FS PROJEKT’s last release. Now it’s coming back with a brand new special single – Elfiyskiy Marsh (The Elven March). While it was conceived to mark the third and final installment of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, it is also a tribute to all those good people whose hearts are in Middle-Earth forever and ever.

The lyrics of the song are Efes’ own liberal translation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s original song of the Rivendell elves which you can find in The Hobbit, towards the end of the book.

The story behind this song is this. “Once upon a midnight dreary” caused by “regular-everyday-normal” things and in a state of restless anticipation of the final Hobbit movie, Efes had an urge to take (for perhaps the zillionth time) his favorite English copy of The Hobbit and dive into the amazing universe of Tolkien’s wizards and dragons, orcs and goblins, dwarves and elves. When he was coming to the end of the book, the so familiar and precious words of the song of the Rivendell elves caught his eye… and it just happened – the urge to read turned into an urge to create. He just couldn’t but for a minute suppress his overwhelming desire to do his own translation of one of Tolkien’s poetic masterpieces, and thus the song was born. It was totally on the spur of the moment, if you like, as it is rather rare when both music and lyrics come to you at the same time.

The sound of this song is of a profoundly new quality as compared to FS PROJECT’s previous releases. The composition and arrangements are much more symphonic. The keyboard and lead guitar parts, of which the interchange is the leitmotif of the whole song, are delicately and intricately balanced. The song opens with a classic guitar intro performed a fermata which is rather unusual for the heavy genres of music.

It must also be mentioned that FS PROJEKT comes out in this release for the first time as an international effort:

Efes: music, lyrics, arrangements, electric guitars, classic guitar, bass, production, keyboard sound design

Oleg Mishin: vocals, choirs, production, keyboard sound design
Paweł "Pawulon" Jaroszewicz: drums
Anna Mishina: female vocals, choirs
Electric guitars, classic guitar & bass recorded at: FS-Studio // Efes

Drums recorded at: JNS Studio (ex-Progresja Studio) // Paweł Janos Grabowski
Vocals & choirs recorded at: O.M.-Studio // Oleg Mishin
Electric guitars & bass reamped at: CosmosStudio // Arkadiy Navaho, Efes
Mixed and mastered at: Navaho Hut Studio // Arkadiy Navaho
Artwork concept: Efes
Artwork & graphic design by: Pavel Kurbanov (Pavel Kurbanov Design Studio)
Photos by: Tatyana Shagina, Jan Fronczak
Post-processing of photos by: Pavel Chistyakov, Jan Fronczak, Pavel Kurbanov