The end result of that interest is "Czar Nicholas Is Dead", a soundtrack to a tundra wasteland filled with lonely soldiers, ornate towers crumbling into ruin, and desolate, blood-soaked snowscapes. An essentially ambient project with minimal instrumentation, "Czar Nicholas Is Dead" captures Russia as a fever dream, a strange and disorienting place that lay on no map, but rather resides entirely in the author’s imagination.

On the one hand, the subject of Kiefer’s project is a strange one to be sure, particularly since most of his recorded output—including the similarly epic and minimalist instrumental project "Exodust" (2002) —has been rooted strongly in American soil. But Kiefer’s work has always also been rooted in history and in academic and intellectual pursuits. His Ph.D. work at the University of California at Davis explores the intersection of history and the arts (particularly literature) and "Czar Nicholas Is Dead" falls perfectly within his primary field of interest, even if the geographical location has shifted off the North American continent.

For research, Kiefer turned to thick volumes on the assassination of the Romanoff family, the tradition of Russian folk music, and to early Russian silent film. The central musical concept, though, was not to represent a version of Russian folk material or a literal rendition of the Russian Revolution, but rather to utilize the ideas and in order to form a particular vision of Russia on the brink of revolution.

Kiefer brought in a handful of his favourite musicians and asked them to improvise with him live in the studio with a handful of simple instructions. The material was then worked over further in the studio, edited, rearranged, and produced, often with additional parts being added or subtracted as the musical force of the album began to reveal itself. The end result is part collective improvisation on a conceptual and musical theme, and part constructed and composed musical work.

MP3s from this release can be found here