Paita is a project of musician and sound producer Kolya Dolgov for the Russian-based Fuselab label – seemingly a very fertile and collaborative stable based on their output and support on this album for this Moscow-based artist.

The album features collaborations with label residents FMSAO, Shoom Berez, X.Y.R. , NWIII, as well as guest artists 8luetic and Молох.

There’s a downtempo 90’s/00’s feel to some of the music, with an ethereal quality through Paita’s vocals.

In 2021, the album What is not was the starting point for Paita, beginning his released experiments with dub and ambient, electronics and new-age, as well as being in punk bands as a bass-guitarist. When working with Shoom Berez, the productions become more dub orientated in percussive and rhythmic structure.  

The label states: “Southern Man is an album-metamorphosis, it is a story or better to say a notebook, about the changes that a young guy goes through. Accustomed to seeing the emptiness of the horizon, he is met with monolithic granite structures, and instead of the great water of the sea, there is now a river winding subtly in channels.”

“It’s what’s inside, but you can listen to it’ says Пайта (Paita). “Here you can hear gentle pop ambient, uncomplicated Balearic house, juke and dub.”

There’s even post-drum and bass excursions present, making the whole album a diverse and enchanting listen.

Check out more releases from Fuselab.