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As we've noted before, the project known as Tree, Bosier (”Derevo, Boz’e”) comes from Khabarovsk in Eastern Russia, almost four thousand miles from Moscow. This truly is the edge of an enormous nation, as far as possible from the capital's hubbub. Issues of distance and a resulting noiselessness will therefore to be important here, be they either real or imagined.
Above, on a suitably overcast day, we see a well-known local monument to a Soviet Su7B fighter jet. Although that structure is (or was...) designed to underscore the impressive might of a domestic air force, the social system it once protected has long since slipped into history. In addition, it's worth noting that these jets were an important part of the Russian air command - albeit four decades ago, in the 1960s and '70s. As the grass and trees above both show, nature now has the upper hand over any prior pathos.
The jets fell silent long ago. A hushed soundtrack - as we'll see - is now being designed for this growing stillness.
In the same city, as noted, we find Tree, Bosier - who were once a trio but have now become a solo project, namely Mr. Maksim Anan’ev, shown here in suitably pensive mood. Despite the smaller scale of his activity, the music of Tree, Bosier is still designed "for people who like sleeping beneath the magic polyphony of ambient compositions.” The understated dimensions on display here - precisely through that self-diminution - actually emphasize the grandeur of their object. Little sounds merely hint in almost ineffable wonder at some absent, "magic polyphony."
Music for people who like sleeping beneath the magic polyphony of ambient compositions
In other words, these brief instrumentals evoke the workings of a natural alternative to society's clumsy, unnatural endeavors - which once upon a time defended themselves with grim determination, using loud aircraft, and then fell apart in 1991.
We've also said before that Anan'ev has a running discussion board at Vkontakte, where he asks listeners to name the music best enjoyed before falling sleep. The finest sounds, we're told, are those that inspire drowsiness and an increased sensation of comfort.
The same themes have just been extended with the release of a beautiful new Tree, Bosier EP, entitled "Hometown." Three brief instrumentals speak to various sensations of modest movement against a comfortingly stable backdrop. They simultaneously express both slight variation and significant consistency, just as one would expect - and hope for! - in a hometown. The very charm of such places lies in their sleepy predictability. No nasty surprises.
The EP's artwork underscores this idea. Domestic structures are huddled together against a sunny backdrop in ways that symbolize pleasing - and growing - familiarity. An occasional TV antenna appears above the roofs, but there's no overt desire to "receive" or venture into the outside world. As they say in Russian: "It's good to visit, but better at home."
The tracklisting pinpoints that atmosphere of movement within the parameters of trust and repose: "Trains," "Seconds before Awakening," and "Morning Symphony." Our final title implies that the best, most enduring sense of security comes from going nowhere(!) and simply attending to the natural, cyclical patterns of birdsong outside a bedroom window.
The elusive, aforementioned "polyphony" of social promise is well managed by Mother Nature.
...the noise of occasional cars, maybe the quiet ringing in my ears or the gentle rumble of the central heating
In the same spirit, that discussion page on Vkontakte recently produced a comment from one listener in particular who also found the best, most calming melodies in the repetitious patterns of a hometown. "I often fall asleep in the peace and quiet [of my apartment], sometimes to the sounds of 'true' ambient music: the noise of occasional cars, maybe the quiet ringing in my ears, or the gentle rumble of the central heating..."
Such are the tiny mechanisms of a microcosmos.
This appeal of slumber is directly echoed in the latest work from St Petersburg's Alexander Daf. Through the Greek record label Electronic Soundscapes he has published a new EP called "While You Were Sleeping." While the recordings have no apparent connection to the 1995 romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock, the allure of magic and mystery experienced in sleep is no less.
Daf's Athens-based colleagues define his output as audible filigree that's spun from "complex idm and downtempo rhythms, together with intelligent and soft 'sound-moods.' These are beautiful [sonic] backdrops that foster a warm atmosphere..."
...beautiful [sonic] backdrops that foster a warm atmosphere
Together with St Petersburg composer Maria Grigoryeva, Daf extends these spatial metaphors with what he terms "sonic topologies, designed to slowly envelop the listener." As the artwork below makes clear, that kind of immersion is clearly meant to be a pleasurable experience. To the point, in fact, where one goes weak at the knees - and falls into the neighbor's daisies.
Consider some of the other terminology used to frame these instrumentals: we're promised a related immersion in some "aural, [even] 'cinematic' shower." The music, in other words, is meant to operate with the "surround sound" of a contemporary theater and thus offer an experience that's woefully absent away from the silver screen. Godard famously called cinema "the most beautiful fraud in the world"; similarly, this is a deliberately-sought deception, once again suggesting that everyday actuality isn't that wonderful...
...an aural, even 'cinematic' shower
The less impressive reality seems, in fact, the more one is likely to encounter the kind of phrasing used in Athens. And so we find ourselves with "panoramic tracks" from Mr. Daf, built carefully upon a backdrop of "warm, organic strings" and "angelic vocals." The gaze skyward is both deliberate and determined.
Any such yearning, however, is quickly undercut by common sense or harsh experience - and manageable, earthbound harmonies are therefore sought a little closer to home. "Soft earthy bass-grooves" are proposed as "the ideal soundtrack to a rainy autumn afternoon." The unhurried, even pleasing descent of an autumnal day into winter's "slumber" becomes the benchmark for these musicians. It's the path of natural acquiescence.
The craft of Daf and Tree, Bosier hopes to match some patterns already at work in nature - since they promise a sensation of envelopment or trusting membership that's usually felt only in sleep.
These parallels between resonant sound and ecological promise are even more pronounced in a recent work from Eugene Kha. His newest EP - "Low Sky" - comes via the appropriately-named Earth Mantra label. Although we've touched upon the raison d'etre of Mr. Kha's work on multiple occasions, it's nonetheless useful to see how his efforts of 2011 are framed by Earth Mantra. The netlabel's staff sketch his catalog in terms of "dark ambience, light ambience, space music, electronic new age, textural ambience, and experimentalism[!]."
...dark ambience, light ambience, space music...
The overarching aim of these looping categories, we're told, has been to fashion a mix of contextual drone and smaller, more specific "noise overtones" - in ways that together become a "concrete tonality." The structure of Tree, Bosier's "Hometown" persists: reassuring repetition, flecked with occasional difference or deviation. In ways that make repetition even more attractive.
Not long ago, a strange sculpture appeared on the streets of Khabarovsk, dedicated to an outmoded model of Soviet meat grinder. Whence this elegiac display of cast-iron junk? It seems reasonable to extend the logic established thus far. Dignified forms of old labor have fallen quiet, be they loud and airborne or bolted to a worktop in a public canteen. In their place, on the distant edge of a far-flung city, other kinds of networked, productive activity are sought. And it's precisely because the loss of old social goals is felt in one's hometown - in canteens, kitchens, and bedrooms - that these structures appear.
Handheld tools and small-scale sounds aim to reestablish a "magic polyphony." Starting at home.
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