Four projects from three cities (Minsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg) have new material to offer. In each case, a quiet register is the result of considerable humility before the past and/or inspiration itself.
For some electroacoustic artists this week, the role of material experience is twofold. It is seen both as lumpen tedium and as the world of leaden instruments - playing a better tune.
A number of house and chillout projects from Russia and Ukraine this week address the issue of hard work. In an unpredictable environment, what makes more sense: diligence or spontaneity?
Warm On is a hip-hop community on Moscow's northern edge. The group's members and colleagues operate in a wide number of Russian or Ukrainian cities. They all share a common philosophy.
Various electronic recordings this week from Kiev, Ulan-Ude, Ekaterinburg, and Gomel speak less of free creation than of the search for verity. Local experience, however, does not always help.
From Kaunas in Lithuania, a couple of young producers use music as a form of immaterial, even ideal experience. Sound grants a sense of location and membership far from the material hassles of DIY enterprise.
The Tallinn Music Week 2013 has just wrapped up, offering a valuable showcase to many young performers. Here we examine eight of them from a predominantly acoustic realm.
The promise and scale of Soviet science fiction continue to inspire a wide range of young musicians. On occasion, the daunting distances of local geography foster similar imagery.
The Origami Sound label has announced a celebratory compilation LP, gathering one hundred tracks from two years of work. Among the Russian contributors, a collective worldview takes shape.
Two new St. Petersburg recordings romanticize the homeless, aimless experience of cosmonauts. Even in Moscow, a related desire is audible, even among the most goal-driven musicians.
