Audioteka: Minimal Techno from an Abandoned Submarine Base

Astor Bell is a young netlabel based in Stockholm. It prides itself upon the fostering of "exclusive and original electronic music in the genres of minimal, idm, and techno." Unwilling, however, to let those three styles limit their operations, the owners of Astor Bell treat them as "nothing more than a starting point. Creative and forward-thinking artists will [always] find a home on Astor Bell, irrespective of the labels placed upon them."

The project's most recent publication has been from the grand Siberian city of Krasnoiarsk, shown below. One of the region's most remarkable aspects is the way in which it has acted as a mirror to 20th-century history. The history of Krasnoiarsk, to a large degree, is that of the nation as a whole.  For decades the area was home to some of the Soviets' largest and most important labor camps; the scale and horror of Stalinism was, one might even argue, a result of those camps. They represented an ever-present threat... and the consequences thereof.

This moribund atmosphere was, paradoxically, reversed by war. The proximity of major conflict to major industry meant that a lot of Soviet manufacturing was moved deeper into Russia for safety's sake. Here began the traditions of metallurgy that would bring jobs and security to Krasnoiarsk, long after Stalin's presence had passed into history. Military developments helped even more, especially in the areas of aeronautics and radar-related science.

Just as wartime had brought the keys to prosperity, so - with equal irony - democracy would bring ruin. The Krasnoiarsk industries had grown so big and powerful that when the Soviet system crumbled, business (i.e., organized crime) moved in with great speed and savagery. Several famous murders would take place in the halls of industry, all in the struggle to gain private control of what used to be state assets.

Working men and women rarely benefit from such battles, and indeed the area became rife with unemployment in the 1990s.

Against this dramatic background, we note the release of the new two-track minimal techno EP by Audioteka, "Just So Simple." Audioteka are Vlad Antonenko and Eddi Shkiper; Antonenko also performs under the name of "DJ Vitamin." Consisting of nothing more than 13 minutes of "simple" instrumentals, the release is clearly designed to operate as a calling card for larger endeavors: "We are interested in finding record labels and radio stations that could release and promote our records."

We are interested in finding record labels and radio stations that could release and promote our records.

When quantifying their various projects and productive offshoots, Audioteka have the following to say for themselves (We've polished the English a little): "'Modern' and 'timeless' are two terms that might seem contradictory, yet both come in handy when defining the [creative] span of this duo from Krasnoiarsk, Russia. Vlad Antonenko and Eddi Shkiper were first bound by a common passion for vinyl records and cutting-edge audio technology. These same enthusiasms brought their machinery and genius[!] together in order to make music."

Confidence is not in short supply.

The cover to the new EP can be seen at the top of this post. It evokes a classic dual image of Siberia, especially of that Soviet heritage (in the best possible sense): both wilderness and technological achievement, inspired on a scale to match and manage that wilderness. Big places evoke big ideas. They also inform the kind of progressive, if not technically romantic turns of phrase that we hear from Antonenko and Shkiper. "Our music combines echoes of futuristic space-beats with a heartfelt Siberian melancholy."

Why "melancholy," though? There's a suggestion here that the forward-looking worldview of socialist science was not only cut short by the political downturn of the 1980s; it also - because of that endless Siberian landscape - existed in a physical setting that offered no resting place for the eyes. Once again we can see from the EP's artwork how electricity pylons swing long, languorous wires across the forest, over and over, with no visible conclusion.

They continue as long as the landscape obliges them to do so - and Siberia's forests are seemingly endless. Nature would inspire a form of yearning long after any social demise.

Now that the industry and science of socialist enterprise have vanished, all that remains are its empty structures or shells. Audioteka produce noises to match those "melancholy" corridors. This, in their own words, is "minimal techno channeled through concrete halls, abandoned submarine bases, and sound-architects' labs."

Of our two musicians, Shkiper (above) is the more forthcoming - and therefore the one more likely to orient our interpretative "choice(s)" when it comes to the significance of these two instrumentals. He has been working with electronic music since 2006; when apart from his colleague, his dancefloor preferences lean towards progressive house and techno. He declares himself an "advocate of conceptual sounds," which brings us immediately to his own role in the evocation of a Siberian/socialist melancholy.

By his own admission, Shkiper is inclined to draw "parallels between music, sounds, and various shades or colors." If we turn - for a third time - to the one "conceptual" image that accompanies "Just So Simple," it's clear that a green/yellow filter has been used to remove the distinction between sky and forest. Height and perspective merge into an overall state that simply endures.

Shkiper has tried to capture these enduring sensations in some of his recent downtempo or chill-out tracks. He publishes them with a particular kind of phrasing: "Get ready for the twilight. Look closely at the colorful sunset; just listen and relax..." Nature still offers the promise of an endurance or "extension" that history cut short; empty socialist buildings still evoke the romance of a social yearning that once hoped to match nature's endless continuation.

Get ready for the twilight. Look closely at the colorful sunset; just listen and relax...

These spaces and specters are exactly what's evoked by the new EP. It is accompanied by a couple of explicit paragraphs. "When gazing at your map of the world, you might be amazed how the sounds of the Berlin underground can wind their way to [distant] Krasnoiarsk in Russia. Considering what we know about our modern, networked planet [of today], we can't say that we feel the same amazement. Nonetheless, you can't help but wonder whether the huge tracts of land in between [Berlin and Siberia] have colored the ones and zeros streaming through the pipelines..."

"When playing 'Just So Simple,' focus your hearing on what's beyond the sharp, synthetic beats and the dark, deep bass: you can't escape the echoes of unending Siberian pine forests, sparkling rivers, majestic ice-covered mountain ranges, and abandoned Soviet concrete cities. Audioteka plugged their laptops into the leftover equipment of a Cosmonaut space station and streamed the output through state-of-the-art nightclub speakers. This is a recording from the far end of some neighboring plains. It's aimed straight for your heart... so open it up..."

...with sympathy for what could have been, echoing through the husks of cold, empty vessels.