The importance of folkloric narratives and a premodern ethos endure for some Russian and Estonian performers. In each case, the allure of yesterday is imagined as some vaguely perceived source of light.
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.
A number of Russian electronic producers announce fresh material that finds surprising inspiration in dowdy locations. A shabby address is, it seems, no real obstacle for zealous dreamers.
Four electronic recordings from Slavic towns this week express growing appreciation for the philosophical benefits of peace and quiet. Some worries about noisy, avaricious passion also transpire.
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.
A number of electronic recordings this week turn to the ocean and night sky in consideration of an uncertain future. That which symbolizes boundless options for some people inspires terror in others.
Various freedoms, both social and emotional, are pondered in some new electronic recordings from Russia. As the pressures upon liberty increase, one of the artists coins the generic tag "drowntempo."
New Siberian releases suggest that the five senses are a poor guide to reality. Beneath a veneer of orderliness lie countless, invisible phenomena. Those unnerving ideas travel all the way to Petrozavodsk...
New compilations from Moscow and Novosibirsk reconsider some assumptions regarding Russia's "provinces." Addresses far from the capital are investigated with romantic irony.
The phenomenon of vaporwave has been gathering critical traction in the US. In a Russian context, though, the same sounds recall a very different social reality.
