Known in creative circles simply as OL, Oleg Buyanov has a debut (and double) album to announce on Moscow's influential GOST ZVUK Records. Entitled "Height Differences" in English (Перепад Высот), it is described as "a reconsideration of late-Soviet music.
Olga Glazova is from St. Petersburg and a professional gusli player of growing repute. Her chosen instrument, responsible for a quintessentially Russian and supposedly pre-urban sound, is a plucked-string harp. The gusli's roots stretch back to the lyre of ancient Greece...
Two important compilations of late have very diverse origins: indie tape music and downtempo idm or glitch. They are both, however, fueled by a lasting desire to be somewhere else
The Ezhevika label in Minsk, Belarus has published a new compilation of regional music. The contributors consider their bonds both to colleagues and predecessors.
Four days after teachers in Dagestan were told their job has no inherent worth, various new recordings investigate fantasy and (absolutely) nothing.
Four new acoustic releases have roots in very diverse towns, all the way from Magadan to Kharkiv. What they share is a desire to hide from crude actuality.
Various recordings this week explore the traditional nature of lyricism in Russian songwriting. History has never made self-realization an easy issue.
The recordings under consideration all speak in favor of humility and various forms of dialog. Current actuality, however, tends to prefer a strident monolog.
The theme of time is foregrounded by several new publications, but their authors remain unsure of an ideal outlook: forwards to the future––or back to a superior past?
As Russia struggles with economic disarray, four rock recordings across the country ponder the role of songwriting as an alternative expression of "law and order."
