As a number of Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian artists consider their future plans, it transpires that the most hopeful songs grow from the greatest failures. Frustrations breed aspirations.
Moscow's "Beryoza" community has published a second compilation reconsidering some Russian pop-songs of the 1990s. From provincial quarters comes a genuinely national worldview.
As professional pressures increase around young artists, three responses transpire: look fondly to the past, adopt a new onstage identity, or plow adamantly onwards...
Sounds emerging from the Baltic shore and Eastern Ukraine this week turn to nature for inspiration. The best way to channel something better than urban experience is, apparently, to cast language and logic aside.
These new songs from Kiev, Minsk, and Moscow all draw upon themes of mental whimsy. Their leaning towards flights of fantasy - if not absurdity - is designed to counter the limits of dull actuality.
On a day of widespread social romance in Russia, we look at three different kinds of reverie and the "dreamy" genres used to express them. They come from Bryansk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg.
The musical styles of Quinta Toka and Indie-Ya differ a great deal. Nonetheless, they share a connection to distant climes - one that originates in a common experience of the 1950-'60s
Air Goatika is an offshoot of Moscow's Goatika Creative Lab and defines itself as a "joyous, energetic musical project, full of light and positive vibrations." Flexible in its lineup, the band's current members are Boris Nazarov (keyboards), Pavel Mikhailuk (bass guitar), Victor Netesov (horns) an...
Not long ago, an anonymous member of the Russian public attended a concert by St Petersburg outfit The Cheshire Strangler. A few brief comments appeared online as a result: "This was the first band on stage. The atmosphere and tunes were really similar to The Cure, circa the 'Disintegration' album...
The Moscow online culture journal OpenSpace recently launched a competition to find new, talented artists in the field of Russian popular music. One could immediately argue that these contests are a dime a dozen nowadays; the more cynical among us would even counter that any such open-format, in...
