Cycle Hiccups: "Puff Pies and Sound Cycles"

Last summer, when the Moscow entertainment magazine Afisha published a list of Russia's 14 most promising bands and/or musicians, one of the chosen few was Cycle Hiccups. The ensemble, in essence, consists of one man, a laptop, and lots of wires.

Oh, and a droll tee-shirt, too.

The human element here is Aleksandr Velikosel'skii, a musician, singer and composer from Petrozavodsk, close to the Finnish border.  The picture below shows Petrozavodsk's famous embankment and the flat Baltic landscape that Peter the Great wished to defend from blond hordes - all wielding ABBA albums and sharp knives from IKEA.

Cycle Hiccups create slight, improvisational music to match this monotone paysage, "exploring different ways of composing or performing electronically with virtually no preprepared material."

The two structuring principles to which CH makes recourse are referred to as “puff pies” and "sound cycles.”  Velikosel'skii defines them further as "a specific way to compose and perform music, based on a certain melodic section or phrasing, which I then use to build an entire work, looping different harmonic phrases (which I call 'sound cycles')."

Recent video, showing a live performance of Cycle Hiccups, is an excellent example of how Velikosel'skii's sounds are slowly looped, one after the other, matching the insistent flatness of his surroundings, mile after fir-lined mile...

The second structural notion comes into play as these cycles multiply. 

In Velikosel'skii's own words, this shift occurs as the work gravitates along both instrumental and vocal lines, "which are [constantly] being activated and layered, one after the other (as so-called 'puff pies'), forming different kinds of polyphony."

The process in toto evolves from a "transparent network into a wall of sound."  (Phil Spector metaphors might not be happiest reference point at the moment.)

A live, more spontaneous performance (at the National Library in Petrozavodsk) highlights the three-way interplay of sound cycles, "puff pies," and unpredictable improvisation - all to create "a special atmosphere or condition.”

In essence, therefore, Cycle Hiccups endeavor to evoke states or atmospheres, rather than fill them with noise.  The wafer-thin line drawings that decorate Velikosel'skii's website illustrate that worldview very nicely.

This same sketchy style was recently vivified by Inna Kazakova in a video for the track "bi ute är ful."

Cycle Hiccups' entire back catalog of three mini-albums can be downloaded for free here.
Their soothing textures may have the following effect.  Avoid operating heavy machinery.