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The southern coastal resort of Sochi, supposedly a place of rest and repose, has been associated with different activities of late. First and foremost, it was recently awarded the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics; that, in turn, has led to much political and financial wrangling over access to the event - and its potential riches.
This week, in the same city, an annual occurrence is taking place dedicated to the slightly more gentlemanly struggles in Russian dance music. More specifically, February 5th saw the official opening of the 2010 Sochi Winter Music Conference. Although operating on a more modest scale than anything "Olympic," the SWMC is still considered important enough to attract the attention of local officials. The conference was officially opened by Sochi's mayor, Anatolii Pakhomov, who spoke of how the Olympics had already begun to change a wide range of activities in the city. He even referred to Sochi as Russia's new "cultural capital." Speaking specifically of the SWMC, he then added that "we're interested in everything that helps to develop event-related tourism in our town."
The SWMC, therefore, would hopefully speak to issues of both business and relaxation. The dancefloor seems a logical venue to do precisely that.
A Moscow representative of Russia's Federal Ministry for Sport, Tourism and Youth Culture went even further, hoping that the festivities would "allow the city to attract worldwide attention to our musical traditions, whilst fostering an appreciation for all things beautiful in the younger generation."
These efforts are now going on for the fifth year, on this occasion between February 5 and 7. Representatives of the music business, especially the fields of electronica and dance, gather in order to discuss business problems and opportunities. Although the focus is always on the marketplaces of Russia and neighboring nations, visitors from continental Europe are also important participants.
It goes without saying that daytime roundtables need to be complimented by nighttime activities, too, and so the SWMC involves up to 100 DJs and musicians, all displaying their skills. Some of the residents in 2010 will be Kiev's Goshva and Donetsk's Nastia Beauty, together with Moscow's Cosmonaut (Eduard Gubin) and DJ Helga; sets by all four artists have been included here.
In assessing all these efforts, Russia's version of Rolling Stone magazine recently called the SWMC a "seaside event designed for those who love the 'festival atmosphere' in the company of foreigners." Little by little, Russian and Ukrainian dance music is testing the waters, so to speak, of an international audience.
Hope persists that the future will be bright.
These plans and potentials were contextualized a few days ago by the NightParty webzine when it interviewed two of the SWMC's organizers, Andrei Moskalev and Aleksandr Vinnik (below). Moskalev immediately admitted that he had long dreamed of an international event that would operate on the same scale as dance/electronica conferences in Miami and Amsterdam.
Supporting his colleague, Vinnik added that SWMC had begun in 2006 as a purely private endeavor, whereas it now involved as many as 700 invited and/or accredited guests. He says that most of those guests appear to be traveling southwards at their own expense, which speaks either to high levels of enthusiasm or much hope for the future. They are, in addition, coming not so much from small locales with little business potential, but - conversely - from Russia's "other" big cities: Iakutsk, Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, and Rostov na Donu, to mention but four of them.
Dance music, it seems, is ready to transfer the successes of Moscow and St Petersburg into other cities.
Vinnik estimates that most of Moscow's better-known clubs can pull in more than 10,000 people over a weekend; that influx, in turn, feeds into what he calls a "real industry, employing a very large number of people. [In the same context], the SWMC isn't some kind of sneaky 'commerical' project, but - at least for us - something tied up with issues of status."
Quantitatively speaking, then, the nightclubs appear to be fairing well; qualitatively, though, they seem to need a little hand.
The ties of Moscow venues to international DJ-ing, have - implicitly - led to higher standards than in other cities around Russia. Through places like Rostov na Donu - and especially resorts such as Sochi - the same Muscovite standards, learned from overseas, will then be offered to visitors from those foreign locations. If all goes well, the osmosis will soon be underway and Russian/Ukrainian electronica or dance music will enter a more fluid, international sphere.
This growing domain, on an initial southern scale, is currently made from busy lectures, an exchange of contacts, and much help from the local tourist board. The subsequent evening shows, once over, will have produced almost 40 separate parties. Everybody hopes this is all much ado... about something special.
It should be said that the SWMC does come under occasional attack for an apparent unwillingness to broaden the range of speakers and DJs; sometimes accusations are heard that the levels of variety from year to year are low. Vinnik explains that by saying neither Russia nor Ukraine are (currently) quick to produce new mentors. "We try to define and showcase the kind of things that people will find interesting - especially the people who work within the music industry."
We try to define and showcase the kind of things that people will find interesting - especially the people who work within the music industry.
Fans may grow in number, but organizers - at least the most influential - do not.
Does, however, that industry even exist any more? The SWMC plans to address this topic, too. Here Moscow DJ Mike (Misha) Spirit chipped in with a few words: "We'll be holding discussions dedicated to the matter of music labels. We'll be talking about the distribution of music through web-based shops, through phone companies, and other forms of content delivery. There'll be a lecture about the status of vinyl, too... plus representatives from digital distributors like Beatport, Kontor Media, Word and Sound, Poker Flat, etc..."
"Our partners will, of course, be on show: DJ Groove's Audio-School will be sharing the secrets of how to write, produce, and master sound recordings."
He then adds a telling word or two: "By the way, we'll be hosting a new type of event: 'Label Drinks.' It's a kind of get-together with the representatives of labels in an informal setting... but not entirely a party setting. Rather a kind of sit-down in a bar, only announced beforehand."
By the way, we'll be hosting a new type of event: 'Label Drinks.' It's a kind of get-together with the representatives of labels in an informal setting... but not entirely a party setting. Rather a kind of sit-down in a bar, only announced beforehand.
At a time when the industry per se has basically vanished, and the need for labels (in any form) is open to digital debate, clubs nonetheless appear to be thriving. Music as an object, in other words, is receding in importance; as an event, however, it seems to be doing well. In order to connect "logical, level-headed management" with the very appeal of clubbing - a place where logic and rational thought are briefly abandoned - people sit down and start drinking...
That's a very Slavic solution for two reasons - all cliches aside. Firstly, it speaks to the workings of post-Soviet business as so-called "clan capitalism." In other words, the social bruises left since 1991 have meant that most business is done in small groups of already familiar individuals. Trust in "social potential" is minimal when dealing with strangers. These "label drinks," therefore, are supposed to increase friends - and therefore trustworthy business partners.
Just as importantly, though, these booze-fueled get-togethers are also taking place in a land where faith in the romance of web-based or "virtual" potentials is equally minimal; given, for example, a choice between online purchases and COD systems, Russians will overwhelmingly opt for the latter. They rarely trust any kind of fiscal exchange that involves faceless bit of plastic and absent salesmen. Commerce needs co-presence.
That lost romance of virtuality is, however, captured through drink. The occasional beer or vodka helps to preserve the virtual (i.e., hope), whatever the state of actuality. It allows closet, initially distrustful romantics to share - together - a sense of why they came to music in the first place. As mentioned already, most of the guests at SWMC have traveled in at their own expense; this is the behavior of fans, not fly-by-night salesmen.
Knowing full well that today's "music business" offers little hope of a quick buck, these same fiscally-challenged fans know the romance of that music can be found (i.e., prolonged) in two places: the dancefloor or - for those elder members of the community with dodgy knees - the bar.
It's a place where - to quote one famous "manager" of years gone by - individuals can remain dizzy with success, no matter how sobering tomorrow's reality may be.
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