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Moscow's National Center for Contemporary Arts was yesterday host to the important and impressive NetAudio Festival, designed to showcase web-based activity in the realm of dance, idm, and electronica. In its own words, the festival "presents to the Moscow public all the Russian music projects - based online - that are currently in most demand."
Justifying the final words of that phrase in purely quantitative terms is difficult (to put things mildly). Nonetheless, it would be fair to say that among those people who consider themselves connoisseurs of Russian web-music, the performers listed below do indeed reflect labels currently garnering the greatest degree of critical attention. In the world of discerning (or elitist!) electronica, in other words, these bands and DJs are indeed the creme de la creme. By bringing them altogether - and doing so in openly accessible, public places - the NetAudio Festival makes admirable strides towards an erasure of any lines between the elite and everybody else.
This is distribution, dissemination, and promotion in the simplest, most pragmatic sense.
Similar festivals take place in London and Berlin, just as they did in Moscow last year, at an event which we reported with equal enthusiasm twelve months ago. "Everybody comes together in one place and at one time! A beautiful, international idea comes back to Moscow" - thanks in no small part to the sponsorship of Musica Excentrica. In essence, the event centers around a six-hour showcase or "non-stop marathon," with back-to-back sets from five Russian netlabels: Subwise, TruType Sounds, Electronica, Passage/Fragment, and Electrosound. The entire evening looked like this:
17.00 – 18.00 Subwise (Raumskaya, Fuu)
18.00 – 19.00 Tru Type Sounds (5-40 am, P-SH)
19.00 – 20.00 Electronica (Frunk29 [last image in this post], Vadim Lankov)
20.00 – 21.00 Passage/Fragment (Modul, Killahertz)
21.00 – 22.00 ElectroSound (moroza_knozova, CD-R)
St Petersburg's Subwise has been the focus of our interest on several occasions, in particular because this young label is growing with impressive speed. As we can see, at the festival they were represented by Raumskaya (below) and Fuu (above).
The rationale for bringing these and other artists together under the Subwise umbrella has been recently formulated in the following manner: “SUBWISE unites musicians who write experimental electronic music – together with some other genres, too. The organizers at Subwise used to publish recordings that had a rather ‘hard’ sound, but now they place an emphasis on softer works. That does not mean to say, however, that things are any less interesting!”
SUBWISE unites musicians who write experimental electronic music – together with some other genres, too. The organizers at Subwise used to publish recordings that had a rather ‘hard’ sound, but now they place an emphasis on softer works. That does not mean to say, however, that things are any less interesting!
Raumskaya looks unconvinced.
When it comes to the ability to remain "interesting," the owners of TruType actively cultivate a sense of proud isolation. Uniqueness, they feel, is best fostered away from the mainstream. “Imagine two groups of people. For the sake of ease, let’s call them ‘Group A’ and ‘Group B.’ The first group listens to MTV or major radio stations, and frequents the kind of record shops where people buy 50 Cent, Akon, Souljah Boy, Britney Spears… and other bubble gum artists. ‘Group B,’ on the other hand, listens to more advanced music – like modern hip-hop, glitch, indietronic, pure noise, free jazz, etc.”
It will come as no surprise to learn that TruType represent the latter group, being arbiters of “new and fresh types of music.” The label’s owners claim to work on behalf of “open-minded people, the kind of music lovers who have no time for [generic] labels. They simply enjoy what’s good.”
It takes a visionary outlook, sometimes, to discern "what's good" amid waves of mainstream media.
And special glasses.
The organizers of NetAudio have showcased TruType thus: "Some styles are very rare among Western netlabels, not to mention Russian spheres. Take, for example, abstract hip-hop or glitchy forms of vinyl-based recordings. To this we could add the rare appeal of inter-spliced sounds or samples taken from old records. Despite such things being so hard to find, this is exactly the realm in which TruType operates. Every now and then the project will close down... only to open up all over again! This year, [thankfully], the people at TruType have scaled new heights and they'll be letting the public evaluate their new work at the festival."
It's very much a hands-on experience.
So what of the "Passage" project? It is an offshoot of the well-established and respected Fragment netlabel, which was formed in 2005. In essence, Fragment focuses on techno releases, whereas Passage is thus far paying more attention to quieter works. Those modest sounds appear against a background of virtual silence, in fact, since Fragment has been extremely quiet of late. The newer label’s remit reads as follows (in slightly altered English): ”Passage is an ambient sub-division of Fragment netlabel and was established in 2009. The basic goal of Passage is to explore the deepest, most intriguing forms of abstract musical expression. Flexible in its attitude towards stylistic boundaries, the creative work at Passage develops within several basic settings: atmospheres of flowing ambience, organic structures, and realms of considerable depth. WELCOME TO PASSAGE!”
The NetAudio organizers then added: "Passage is designed to support compositions in the styles of ambient, glitch, minimal dub, and so forth. At the moment they've put out a new release by Feldmaus, which is a side-project of Modul; [both can be heard above]. The EP was put together with help from far-northern experimental musician Suokas (aka Slow). The Japanese guitarist Imachi Akira also took part."
In fact, on the subject of those same Krasnodar whizkids, a new podcast/mix has just appeared via the "Highsessions" webcasts and can be downloaded for free.
As for Electrosound, we've turned to the label in the past in order to speak of outfits such as Monokle, Moscow's Moroza Knozova (below) and/or CD-R. Their appearance at NetAudio was in order to mark the next stage of their development.
"This is the final note sounding in Electrosound's history... It was formed in 2005 and initially began publishing net-releases. The project was one of the first in Russia to put out compilations encompassing almost all the progressive electronica that was around at any given moment. But all those past achievements occurred purely in order that we could move further. At the current time, Electrosound has metamorphosed into the Musica Excentrica project, operating both as a label and a concert agency."
The fifth and final project on display was the excellent and elegant Electronica, based in Irkutsk, Siberia, and represented at the festival by, among others, Frunk 29 (final image). NetAudio justified the label-owners' long journey across Russia with a few words of praise. "This Siberian label has advertised itself with the kind of confidence one might expect from a Moscow project! Among its artists are some leading lights of modern Russian electronic music. The people at Electronica are also on good terms with practically all the important representatives of Moscow's club and techno scenes, too. They put out podcasts, web-releases, and manage all manner of events. The Electronica project is a wonderful example of how digital technology can bring together people who live in different time zones and, we must admit, very different cities."
A wonderfully inclusive and romantic raison d'etre.
Elitism... be gone.
Just as last year, a compilation has appeared to celebrate the festival. It can be downloaded for free and acts as a priceless introduction to some of the most appealing and promising web-based projects around the "runet." The two free CDs that constitute this release last a full one hour and 49 minutes; judging by the picture below, that's more than enough time to bring two or three people together in order to twiddle, tweak, and overcome any sad sense of isolation caused by "different time zones and different cities."
After all, it's clear in that repeated adjective that the further one gets from Moscow, the harder life can be - which only increases the importance of the music. No wonder Russians spend more time on social networking sites than any other nation - swapping stories and songs as they do so.
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