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.
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.
Following a series of awards in the Belarusian press, we look at four projects from around the country. What has rock music meant to them and does it still have any connection to the past?
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.
Three inherently acoustic traditions are subjected to a process of change. The more those variations come to light, the more they aid self-expression. The broader one's vista, the more subjectivity benefits.
The Belarusian electro-folk ensemble Rusya is publishing some reconsiderations of pagan song in a modern setting. That same yearning for some lost fruitfulness appears in very different places.
Two new synth-pop recordings draw upon the songs and electronic games of a Western childhood in the 1980s. Their combined attempts to rework some half-forgotten cheerfulness fade as we move south...
This week, a rather lonely songwriter from Khabarovsk has caused a small sensation in the Russian web. His themes of crushing fate and acquiescence, however, are reflected in a host of other releases, too.
The Estonian composer Jakob Juhkam often finds his catalog associated with that of Frank Zappa. To what degree, though, will other performers accept those wild flights of optimistic fantasy?
Lenta.Ru and Kroogi continue to gather interpretations of classic songs by Akvarium, in recognition of the band's forty-year career on stage. A wealth of memories emerges from the project's participants.
