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There exists in Russia a well-known children's charity by the name of "Podari Zhizn'" (Give Life). Its main sphere of activity is to provide financial and medical help for seriously ill youngsters. In the words of the charity's organizers, "we want kids to be the object of our love and attention - not the cause of sorrow." The main cause of that sorrow is pediatric cancer, which apparently takes the lives of 5,000 Russian children every year. The staff at "Podari Zhizn'," addressing this tragic issue, insist that "We know these kids can be helped. We know how to help them, too."
Implicitly, between that awareness and success lies effort: in other words, what's needed is increased fundraising and extended research, fueled by those funds. The actress Chulpan Khamatova (below) has expressed her views on this score, being a spokesperson for the charity. Having been exposed to the complete awfulness of the situation, she realizes that "everything" possible must be done. She talks of her commitment in broad, absolute terms.
You go into these hospitals and you see everything with your own eyes
"You go into these hospitals and you see everything with your own eyes. Each of us lives in our own little world and rarely takes a good look around. It seems to us all that we exist in a whirlwind of serious, sometimes tragic dilemmas. One of my friends, for example, was unable for six months to find himself the right car - and got really upset as a result. Those issues, however, are nothing in comparison with the problems of a child who's fighting for his or her life."
Podari Zhizn' is now being helped by the two musicians who - until recently - constituted the duo Tatu: Lena Katina and Iulia Volkova. Last spring, after eleven years as Russia's most recognizable export, the couple split, announcing their intention to begin solo projects. At the same time, members of the Russian public were given the chance to remix some tracks from the final studio album, "Waste Management." And now, through the download site Kroogi, those remixes are finally available - together with an opportunity to contribute to Podari Zhizn'. The recording is free, but a donation is requested.
The scope of the remix competition was grand indeed. Most of the contributions came from little-known artists, as Katina recently remarked. “I’m very glad that participants were able to take our songs and discover ways to make them their own. If our music can help promote some talented artists, we'll be truly satisfied with the results.”
As opposed to the band's first official remix CD, where kingpins of the dancefloor worked genuine, exclusive magic on Tatu compositions, here the emphasis has - for the most part - been upon maximum inclusion. Neophytes and strangers take the place of established producers. As a result, the stylistic range is remarkable - all the way from ska(!) to psy-trance, dubstep, and house. Genres, participants, and even the discs involved are numerous. Put differently, this multifaceted material is offered to the public as a couple of separate CDs: the first tends towards quieter ends of the spectrum (with lounge or dub stylings), while the second begins with some glitch tracks before edging its way towards techno and louder habits.
And so we start walking a fine line between plenitude and excess.
Caution, ultimately, is thrown to the wind. The wider the stylistic and geographic range, the better, it seems. The social dimensions of the project are thus maximalized. The more, the better, because Khamatova had seen "everything with her own eyes" and a response on the same scale is required.
And that raises the question of maximalism per se. What does it mean to include so much - or, if possible, everything?
One of the more intriguing interpretations of excess from the world of graphic arts has held that maximalism results from doubt over the issue of what's genuine and/or false. Unable to distinguish between the reliability of truth and the uncertainty of doubt, a maximalist work will include everything - just in case. Unease fuels overcompensation.
The most famous definition, however, came in the 1990s from Iranian artist Daryush Shokof, synchronous with the years of Tatu's greatest success and the market-driven frenzy of Yeltsin's second term in office. Shokof held that maximalist works, whilst erotically figurative or "lustful" towards their own plenitude, also include a socially-tinged irony. Informed by an inclusive, even visionary drive, they also doubt the sweep of their purview - and express romantic self-doubt.
According to that rationale, the social engagement of the Tatu album, full of laudable philanthropy, accommodates everybody and every possible style in order to aid society's weakest members. And yet the the scale of that that benefaction emerges, it seems, because serious doubts remain about the public's likely involvement. Everything must be tried, because we've no idea what will work - if anything. The grander the act of charity, the more its suggests social apprehension.
We could even point to the aesthetic of Tatu's final studio album. In Russian it was known as "Happy Smiles." The sarcasm of that Russian title was mirrored, if not outrun by the junkyard aesthetic of the English equivalent - not to mention the faceless images of the artwork (above). Provocatively dressed torsos had no features; public desire could therefore be mapped upon them in any form. The democratic inclusion of hedonistic pop (then) or web-based networking (now) has been increasingly questioned by those performers who invoke it.
If Tatu hope to engage a socially responsible nationwide audience, yet harbor persistent doubts, an even starker version of the same dilemma can be seen with the gifted Siberian duo known as Demokracy, aka Albert Damscray and colleague Stanislav Hmot. They turn global spheres of thought into cosmic(!) versions. Where society fails, space may provide a better answer.
If we can bear to look.
The use of science fiction as a canvas for social fantasy is introduced in offhand fashion. Lest big fantasies - concerning all planets! - fail, they're introduced with a slacker attitude: "We write tunes together and live in the middle of nowhere... We’re just two guys who like to play board games, drink beer, read sci-fi novels - stuff like that. To be honest, we don’t really like talking about ourselves. We operate in the kind of sphere you might call 'creative work,' but it's really too boring to discuss..." Speaking about the huge distances between the cosmos and a decent nation, Hmot and Damscray recently declared: "Our country's a joke."
Our country's a joke
Thanks to the efforts of Mikhail Bortnik in New York, some reworked stories about that star-filled realm have appeared today - as a forty-minute Demokracy mix, "Have Space Suit, Will Travel."
We mentioned not long ago that Hmot was using a picture of Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky as his Facebook avatar - a man who killed himself when the Soviet machine became precisely that. Inhumanly grand. Consider, therefore, the rhetoric used by Mr. Bortnik and colleagues in order to celebrate the long, patchwork Demokracy mix - involving anything and everything.
As with Tatu, any kind of maximalist rhetoric may suggest that something, somewhere, is nonetheless amiss. Expect trouble.
We quote the original verbatim: "Come along, loyal fans, as we observe a vision of the near future. The place: Russia. The year: 34 A.S. (After Singularity). Gigantic automatons stomp across a hermetic landscape. Grass and soil have been replaced with carbon fiber and diamond alloys. Humans have been forced underground, while their robotic masters wait patiently in the overworlds, as mortal half-lives fly by. The Eurasian continental mass is now dominated by a massive sentient structure which encompasses a bulk of the former USSR. This is club Demokracy. This is where machines come to dance."
Utopian fantasy and dystopian horror coexist - to the sounds of nervous laughter. The size of the dream is caused by apprehension.
"We’re pleased to announce a new release in conjunction with Mishka [Bortnik], Demokracy’s 'Have Space Suit, Will Travel.' This mix is 40 minutes of pure glitch greatness... Harnessing the immense power of the internet, Demokracy have made sure their furious sampling and firm grasp on future music have reached ears the world over."
"After the recent release of their debut EP 'Double Star,' they decided to take it to the next level... Get the mix, and prepare to fantasize about cybernetic enhancements and nanotech body modifications."
In a world where anything's possible, a maximalist style will predominate. It reflects a great deal of hope with regard to the future yet an equal skepticism that's lingering from - or caused by - the past. It's idealist and ironic simultaneously. The promise of social inclusion seems so appealing it's handed over to the boundless realm of science fiction - yet rendered in terms of limited, antique video games (below). These new (re)mixes from Tatu and Demokracy, although totally different stylistically, echo one another socially. Their maximalism gives voice to the quiet suspicion that substantially less will come true.
As the Russian saying has it, "Each maximum also has its minimum."
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