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.
Given the challenges facing young Russian musicians today, the theme of risk often arises. The unknown - be it financial or geographic - both unnerves and intrigues.
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.
A range of new industrial drone and harsh noise recordings from Riga, Moscow, Orel, and Togliatti are used in order to voice some ineffable aspects of modernity. Most of those truths are very disconcerting.
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.
As a young musician from Krasnodar does much to hide his/her gender and location online, some other electronic artists find equal appeal in vague, distant realms. "Somewhere else" looks better than home.
Over the course of several electronic recordings from Perm, Krasnodar, Tula, and St. Petersburg, a fondness emerges for the lo-fi technology of the 1990s. Bad machinery recalls happy times.
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.
