Some fragile releases this week share a common interest in ailing forms of social enterprise. These sounds of breakdown and demise also hope, paradoxically, to prompt thoughts of civic improvement.
The St. Petersburg netlabel Subwise has announced four new releases from around Russia. Taken together, they are a snapshot of material difficulty - and suggest how collaborative enterprise might offer solutions.
Aesthetically, there might seem little in common between these recordings. Geographically, they are also far apart. yet when it comes to considerations of urban and rural existence, we find a considerable overlap.
Various glitch and lo-fi recordings this week offer a nervous view of surrounding actuality. The brittle structure of these instrumentals speaks to a marked distance from confident self-statement.
Three new drone and glitch recordings from northern Russia consider the nature of music without authorial or editorial control. Sounds prior to human intervention are used and celebrated - at an increasing distance from "handicraft."
Hyperboloid Records is a discerning Moscow label dedicated to some of the best bass-, 8-bit, and "brain-music" practitioners of the present. What, therefore, appears striking is the label's use of prior decades for inspiration.
Some net-releases from Moscow and Yekaterinburg consider the likehood of communal spirit and/or comfort outside one's front door. The result is not positive and, consequently, some of these artists resort to what they call "digital voodoo."
A compilation CD from Kiev label Kvitnu celebrates the life and work of Polish composer Karol Szymanowski. Together the eight contributors help to show the relevance of Szymanowski's heritage, even 79 years after his death.
Eleven Tigers (Jokubas Dargis) and Baiba Yurkevich have both moved away from their Baltic homes, to England and Holland respectively. That transition had led to some interesting shifts in philosophy - as one place is swapped for "space" in general.
New recordings from DeepX (Yekaterinburg) and Picpack (Donetsk) consider the relationship of regimentation to modern life. In that competition between habit and anxiety, some calming figures appear from the world of Slavic folklore.
