Adventurous music from Russia (2015)
Sleepstep is the first collaboration between Raster-Noton and Dasha Rush. The record’s subtitle ‘sonar poems for my sleepless friends’ describes its underlying concept – Sleepstep is a trip through electronically alienated micro-compositions and sound collages that, interwoven with text passages, aim at creating a dream-like atmosphere.
Nikita Oleinik – Religion of Bones
Improvisational electronic pieces from Moscow-based composer and performer. Entirely made on a 1970’s Buchla system, inspired by ancient spritiual traditions of Tibetian Bön religion.
Spiritual bass techno is now officially a thing. A heavy, heavy offering by the prodigal son of Russian electronics. Whilst drawing on authentic folk and tribal music, Moa Pillar is equally inspired by the forward-thinking electronica and pounding dark techno as well as sound art. Think raster-noton meets Sublime Frequencies. Or Shackleton remixes the Ocora catalogue. Comparisons don’t make justice here – “Humanity” is a crushing sound odyssey in all its HD glory.
Ildar Zaynetdinov aka Lowbob runs Gost Zvuk, probably the most influential and vibrant underground Russian label of today. When he’s not running the label, Zaynetdinov also composes music under the name 8OUSYBOY.
‘Collage’ is a collection of material drawn from disparate origins, times and locations – all carefully pieced together to form a cohesive whole. Far greater than the sum of its parts, ‘Collage’ is a beautifully composed, bold and broad-sweeping album that reveals a big step forward for a young and ambitious artist whom we are certain has a very bright future ahead.
Kirill Chernegin – Piano Quartet #1
Kirill Chernegin is a young Russian composer born June 7th 1986 in Saint-Petersburg. He studied in Saint-Petersburg’s Conservatory and Belorussian Academy of Music as a composer and musicologist (bachelor of arts, 2010). Then he continued his postgraduate education at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Dance de Paris (music theory and composition, master of arts, 2012).
“Over a period of months about ten years ago, an idea resonated inside of me. I found inspiration working at my windowsill where, over three days, Piano Quartet #1 finally flowed onto paper.”
Elena Pustova (Voi Doid) was born in 1990, Kaliningrad, Russia. The musical breaking point for her came when she was eighteen years old. Various elements started merging together in her brain. Academia and Sufi trance of Jajouka, industrial music and african tribal dances. Step by step, day by day, the deeper she was falling in the rabbit hole, the stronger she was staying on her curious venture to find out her own meaning of sound.
Atman–Brahman is a product of this psychedelic search. Taking ancient trance songs – mantras, Sufi songs – and intertwining them with synth noise and onga beats, she is creating music that at the same time is exploring trance and is trance.
Fifth release on Tastes Differ, the record label created by Alexander Zaitsev (EU) and Fedor Vetkalov (Xi Zhuang)
A duo of Anastasia Tolchneva (Lovozero) and Fedor Pereverzev (Moa Pillar) have recorded “Zemli” (“Lands”) hiking, making field recordings and improvising while on the road – and what a soulful ambient record it is!
No status, no background, no ego, no bullshit. Heartfelt folk vistas make way for ethereal Cocteau Twins-style cuts, deep drones, aural accidents and minimalist piano. These songs are sonic diaries of young people exploring Russia’s valleys and hills, rivers and lakes. Not intended for a release, the personal recordings possess that strange magic lots of “psychedelic collage” records lack.
Terminal Dream records first EP release is recorded by its founder Gultskra Artikler (http://miasmah.com/recordings/gultskra.html) aka Pixelord, aka Alexey Devayin. ECO LAN explores ecological aesthetics of the internet and computers, playing with notification sounds, nature voices and lofi arpeggios.
Love Cult have recorded in a real studio for the first time, and thankfully, escaped the cleanness or overproduction whatsoever. These swampy tracks bear the weight of every single thing produced by the duo before: murky, decayed, out there. However, there’s far less stretching things out. Is this dance music? Well, if “club” means a place for lost souls and thump stands for menace, then yes. The duo’s interest is de-composing the human voice shines on Wonderland EP. Disregarding every possible parameter and value in recorded voice, the remnants of Anya’s vocal lines hang in the air like heavy smoke rings. At points, microscopic samples scrape the sound as if threatening to knife the listener. Sub-heavy beats thunder relentlessly behind raw and naked clockwork programming. Every fraction of sound re-amped through empty corridors, metal tubes and prime analogue equipment, only to be re-sculpted further.
Not strictly a release, as far as a I know, but this relentless dissection of the piano from the composer-autodidact Dmitry Timofeev, is compelling enough to be included as a “bonus track” on this 10+1 round up of adventurous music from Russia.