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Nasienie (Senia Zhupel, Samara)
A message came to us this morning from the southern city of Samara, specifically from Nasienie (aka Senia Zhupel), announcing that this solo project is soon ending. "I'm starting something different. I'm beginning to find work with samples rather dull - so I'll be heading in a new direction, maybe something along the lines of synth-pop or post-punk, even." And so the recordings of Nasienie will be consigned to archival status, after a number of impressive releases from both domestic and foreign net-labels.
A certain vocabulary had developed around those EPs and albums. Listeners became used to discussions of Nasienie's "darkly ambient works," for example. Elsewhere they might encounter references to "subtle, ambient trips through a foggy soundscape" or, on another occasion, talk of some "collective fictional space" in the context of "post-economic music."
Subtle, ambient trips through a foggy soundscape
The fact that Zhupel currently quotes a line from Kid606 in his PR work suggests he's more than ready to embrace bigger, bolder formats. His profile on Vkontakte opens with the following declaration: "Despite All My Rave, I'm Still Just A Bat In a Cave." And yet, one might argue, that sentence romanticizes an element of stubborn, even gothic solitude. This vague state between escapism and activity, between ambient and more "purposeful" styles, remains important - especially in the light of Zhupel's preferred imagery over the last few months. The photographs we see above and below decorate his account at Soundcloud.
Their implicit emphasis upon (dramatic!) transience and/or loss will continue to be significant - and not only in Samara.
The farewell tracks from Nasienie have just been published during this bridging period. Tagged as ambient techno, they are available for download free of charge. Both are dedicated to these same issues of transitoriness and (emotional) distance from some perceived mainstream or mores: "Through Your City" plus "Close and Apart." These compositions, even on a titular level, are likewise designed to evoke a liminal experience - in between times of fixed arrival or departure. For that reason they invite comparison with some other material of recent provenance. Here, too, we discover the appeal of incertitude.
We have in mind the discography of sokpb avabodha, whose (typically) lower-case moniker refers to a one-man enterprise in Yekaterinburg, toying with both improvised formats and a range of field recordings. The very notion of "composition" here is therefore handed over to processes unconstrained by any authorial goal or fixed address. Most of the work by this willfully anonymous musician can also be downloaded for free - from a number of locations. Sounds born of nowhere special are distributed to nowhere in particular.
Collective improvisations without a set theme
The most recent examples come from a number of lengthy collaborations with Yekaterinburg neighbors Mol Deskat' and Bipolar. They're defined as "collective improvisations without a set theme." An enduring focus is established upon vintage synthesizers in particular. What results is an "almost complete dominance of ambient electronica with a modest smattering of guitar-based drone sketches."
Small designs upon an imprecise background.
sokpb avabodha (and colleagues): "Improvisation Collective d'Ambient"
In previous months these efforts have been spoken of as "almost spontaneous collaborations." Only the slightest notion of editorial control or intent remains. The idea of conscious authorship begins once more to fade away. In fact, one might argue that the only proof of compositional "management" comes in the removal of these tracks from aimless concerts - that are considerably longer. Segments are actively chosen from within improvisation. Decisions are made... within a lack of decision.
It all helps, claims sokpb avabodha, to "separate the wheat from the chaff. Passages are extracted [from the whole] and subject to some final overview only later. It's all done without any fixed intent or prior agreement to observe narrow styles and trends. What results is a rather strange mixture of dub, drone, ambient textures, and abstract sonic patterns."
A rather strange mixture of dub, drone, ambient textures, and abstract sonic forms
Some 2009 recordings - "Requiem for an Analog Signal" - took these ideas to a logical conclusion. "This is completely improvised material[!]. It was all recorded in real time, without any preparation. The only tools used were a guitar and processor: no subsequent effects were added - and no mixing was involved, either... The upshot is something otherworldly and sinister, even. In the work's closing section, people with an especially vivid imagination might hear the harrowing screams of some abstract creatures."
sokpb avabodha (Yekaterinburg)
The allure of these dark ambient sounds, as mentioned, is their distance from specificity or their wanton movement into obscurity. What becomes "harrowing" is the appearance of a concrete presence: calming imprecision morphs into a looming (and therefore possibly threatening) identity. As we can see from the blurred portraiture of both sokpb avabodha and Nasienie, anonymity and unfocused self-presentation work in support of these ambient sounds. Homelessness and facelessness are wantonly sought: they reflect an active, willed movement into obscurity. A shape coming into focus from imprecision is much more upsetting!
This appeal of (or need for) enigma and polysemy against a backdrop of unpleasant, even fatal determination is certainly reflected in the back catalog of Nasienie, whose page at Vkontakte used to be headed by a brief phrase in English: "So it goes." Put differently, the workings of the world have a certain, predetermined pattern to which man is not privy. As a result, looming or "monstrous" actuality and artistic enterprise grow further apart: the former is run by a heartless logic that slowly becomes manifest. The latter remains blissfully free of purpose.
So it goes...
This flight from concrete, usually civic meaning is nicely underscored in the portfolio of Kharkov musician Maksim Kiritchenko, who operates under the perfect pseudonym of Niekto, i.e., a mere "Somebody." Mr. Kiritchenko creates not only music, but also verse, paintings, and photographic studies. A little searching online reveals a fair amount of related material in different media. Linguistic efforts, however, are very much outnumbered by audio-visual projects: Kiritchenko has little to say, but much to show.
The older illustrations, as we see here, are fundamentally monochrome and tend to involve faceless, almost shadow-like figures moving through nondescript actions. Considerations of anonymous routine are uppermost. Fragile, insignificant threads slowly constitute a burdensome fabric. Little decisions make a destiny - with scant enthusiasm. Meaning is routine...
These human shapes can be found in greater numbers at Kiritchenko's Flickr account. Related, impressionistic avatars are offered in more concrete situations, none of which are happy. Figures care for the ill, stare aimlessly at televisions, hug lifeless scarecrows, or push their face into the walls of barren rooms. Those few illustrations in which we see "vivid" social interaction do nothing to lighten the tone.
It is, however, at Flickr that we also find some cause for optimism - in recent imagery. Kiritchenko on several occasions hands a camera to his son. Color suddenly floods the frame as a young boy films his father with evident admiration; the shot angles also change dramatically as a fledgling artist considers a role model. Optimism shines forth - unexpectedly, honestly, and from society's newest members. Monochrome or blue shades turn swiftly to yellow in related drawings. Color as a whole emerges from nowhere, so to speak.
The bittersweet, calming yet melancholy concept of "Niekto" - or "Somebody" - in Kiritchenko's music thus seems very much an adult moniker: it reflects a melange of subjectivity and indistinct selfhood in between generations. It mirrors both the passage of one's own life and the creation of another. Proud individuality, pure and simple (in some atomized form), proves itself to be a rather sad spectacle, striving for the status of some concrete and therefore inflexible meaning.
A much more appealing realm of enterprise is the supremely social act of fatherhood, in which one exists through charity, care, and compassion. We're offered a picture of familial subjectivity at a (fine!) distance from cocky presumption or ostentation, bridging the distance between generations.
In which case, one comes to embody the very appeal of liminality we see in Nasienie; it's the attraction of being endlessly, productively "en route." And that, by implication, allows for a happy exit from the goal-driven, depressingly pragmatic forms of social assertion available outside the home. Some recent imagery created by Mr. Kiritchenko - shown below - paints those social alternatives in rather drab colors.
Almost laughably so.
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