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Kharkiv, Ukraine
Despite any Germanic overtones of the moniker Enformig, it actually belongs to Ukrainian techno artist Mikhail Shevchenko, who lives and works in the city of Kharkov. Currently in his early twenties, he promotes his craft with an extremely long list of marketable styles - yet virtually no direct statement. Biographical and/or aesthetic context is almost absent. One of his Russian-language web venues, for example, simply declares that Shevchenko has been playing live for the last six years - at which point all personal exposition comes to an end. We are left only with the straightforward request that he be paid approximately $666 for each live set, which seems a tad excessive for local clubs...
In essence, though, Mr. Shevchenko focuses upon aspects of techno and tech-house; those efforts have now led to the release of a four-track single on Monography Records. The single consists of three remixes or reconsiderations of an original composition, "My Black Uniform." The only subjective utterance anywhere near these instrumentals can be found deep on Shevchenko's profile at Vkontakte - as the two small stanzas of a poem he penned not long ago. The general atmosphere cast by those quatrains is less than jolly - and contributes to a sense of general malaise.
The recording's artwork also sets the same, generalized tone: an erasure of identity is well under way, leaving plenty of room for gloominess. Or black uniforms.
Enformig: "My Black Uniform" (2011)
Turned into English prose, this versified musing might read as follows: "The sunken fog of ruined nights. My blood and brains are on another planet. There's a party next door... My whole life is in the toilet." Shevchenko then complains that "after a night on the dancefloor, you're useless during the day. 'Slave of the dancefloor' - that's you."
All in all, we're left with some rather severe instrumentals, which - with their strict, insistent structure - are designed to counter an equally stark reality, one that's "in the toilet." The effort needed to keep misery at bay is dramatic indeed, to the point where some rather desperate levels of pleasure-seeking soon become self-destructive. One of the comments currently embedded in an Enformig instrumental at Soundcloud likens the sonic or social effect to that of wood being sawn. Hedonism is terribly hard work - to the point where it's no guarantee of fun...
My blood and brains are on another planet
Similar levels of "earnestly" sought entertainment are evident in new material from Moscow's Shyam, otherwise known as Darwin. This tight-lipped musician, preferring two stage-names to normality, is originally from the Belarusian town of Grodno, close to both the Polish and Lithuanian borders. Looking back over his own personal history in Belarus - after a move to the Big City - our traveling artist now admits a long-standing passion for house music, but talks of his career as a "symbiosis," rather than as a trajectory.
Perhaps in the same spirit, he - like Enformig - has almost nothing to say for himself, despite a slowly growing discography - on this occasion with Kiev's High-Jack Records, which itself is an offshoot of Subself.
Enformig (Mikhail Shevchenko, Kharkiv)
In one of his rare, brief, and enigmatic statements, Shyam recently expressed a hope that people would "not only listen to this music, but hear it, too." Implicit here is the notion that some ubiquitous - audible - promise already exists to counter the roar of intrusive, industrial zeal from surrounding streets. One just needs to recognize and admit its presence. In other words, the process of escapism that Enformig seeks upon the dancefloor is itself an alternative to the sad machinations of daily life. In which case, the goal-driven contrariness we hear in Kharkov should be replaced with an appreciation for that which is. Pleasure-seeking might be swapped for the joy of realization and a certain presentism.
I listen to these tracks before going to sleep. They really help!
And, sure enough, approval of these welcomingly deep or "profound" sounds - right now! - can be heard from Shyam's listeners; fans express their happy awareness of a new, broader vista, apparently made evident by the resonant dub textures of this deep tech-house. One especially grateful admirer online says "I listen to these tracks before going to sleep. They really help!" Calm, comfort, and consolation might be found in the development of an echoing, alternative soundtrack to frustrating actuality.
And then, on a grander scale still, another listener declares: "These sounds are big, dude!! I’m totally rocking out to this....Neighbors beware: large sounds are a’ comin'!" Unpleasant influences can even be drowned out - in various senses - with some deep tech-house.
Reality's strident noises and harsher edges can - with practice - be softened.
Shyam (aka Darwin, Grodno / Moscow)
And that brings us to the newest recordings from Jane (aka Zhenia) Maksimova, also based in Moscow and a classically trained musician. Since graduating as a pianist, she has tended to work more in the field of contemporary electronica. It was, in particular, her reinterpretations of Russian folk song that first garnered press attention and led slowly to her status as an important figure in the spheres of downtempo and chillout.
Nowadays that generic preference is morphing into the realm of club music, thanks in part to the support of Pitch Music.
Bel Canto, Craig Armstrong, Air... the sky, clouds, springtime... and the universe
These transitions back and forth between lounge, dancefloor, and classical registers come from a wide range of influences, stretching from the more atmospheric ends of an orchestral spectrum to the atmosphere itself... "Rachmaninov, Schumann, Pink Floyd, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Seal, Bel Canto, Craig Armstrong, Air... the sky, clouds, springtime... and the universe." Shyam's desire to orchestrate actuality to different, deeper noises here becomes bold indeed in the conception - or creation! - of somewhere entirely better.
Together with the October release of her new single, which is entitled (rather oddly) "Amid the Road," the usually hushed Ms. Maximova has just spoken to the Russian press. Silence is unexpectedly broken, at least in written forms. Here, in that online conversation with a young webzine, we find more evidence to support the creative credo of Shyam.
From Enformig came an initial, worrying transition from desire to drive, perhaps: from pleasure per se to the insistent, even grim use of machinic tech-house as the means to (or search for) some superior end. Pleasure turned into a kind of striving, leading to the very morbid metaphors of that same artist's poem. The result? Sounds that are allegedly redolent of a busy saw, digging its way into large pieces of wood...
Maksimova instead extends the core ideas of Shyam's new "Magnolia EP" in her interpretation of creativity as a satisfying, even liberating process - in and of itself. Painfully elusive goals are replaced by events; humorless "progression" is replaced by sounds of inclusion (and more metaphors of "depth" or profundity).
The very process of creative work is itself happiness
These thoughts come after the interviewer's query as to whether sadness is a prerequisite for artistic effort. "When you're in some 'seventh heaven,' then of course you won't feel like doing anything artistic... What you need to do, though, is simply start... And, when you do [finally] get going, you'll see that the very process of creative work is itself happiness. It's a way of concentrating all your sadness and joy [in one activity]. Creative effort is drawn from a process of loss and discovery, too - and that's seventh heaven!"
Jane Maksimova (Moscow): "Amid the Road" (2011)
Maximova ponders the logic of formulating things any more... but falls quiet. Earnest enterprise trumps any wordy debate. Language, perhaps, does damage to the precious relief or catharsis experienced through ubiquitous, rhythmic sound. Speech only spoils the directionless, endlessly promising inclusion of a dancefloor with its linear, logical operations.
Less debate, more decibels.
It's better not to speak in concrete terms...
"Personally speaking, I've never really understood what inspiration is... For example, it might seem to you that the springtime inspires you in some way, whereas in actual fact it's just a well-hidden feeling that rushes to the surface [of your awareness]. It's better not to speak in concrete terms. Let's leave everything as a mystery - since that's inspirational!"
In which case, we'd shouldn't expect another in-depth interview for a very long time. Instead we're left with the tight-lipped workings of Enformig and Shyam. The latter, extending a penchant for wordless tech-house, is championed - as mentioned - by High-Jack Records, who themselves are equally quiet. One of their current web venues in Kiev involves no text, save a business-like list of artists and a pithy discography. That terse statement of purpose is then replaced by the kind of imagery we see below. Devoid of all perspective, another "deep" realm is celebrated in dramatic form by the shape of a skate, which - were it not for a yellow stencil - would also be absent. The resonant emptiness of these techno tracks begins to make a great deal of sense, as the promise of a "full void" - in the famous words of another fan of black squares.
Core logo, High-Jack Records (Kiev)
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