Ilya Belorukov / Илья Белруков

A couple of new recordings from St. Petersburg consider the ways in which improvisation and endless change can foster a sense of liberty. Those musicians living further afield, however, are less optimistic.

Three new drone and glitch recordings from northern Russia consider the nature of music without authorial or editorial control. Sounds prior to human intervention are used and celebrated - at an increasing distance from "handicraft."

Full of Nothing is a label based in the forests between Russia and Finland. From these liminal spaces come the sounds of yearning for a sense of community. Those same noises are fading fast