Russian electronic, experimental, etc?

[Jaakko V.]

In Russia there has been made some absolutely wonderful art in the fields of cinema, literature, visual arts... But what is your experience of the Russian electronic/experimental/avantgarde music?

For me the most important is of course Eduard Artemyev. Maybe he is also the most well know in general. I really haven't heard that much of noise or power electronics, but it seems there is a lot of ambient done in Russia - especially of the 'ritual' variety. They seem to have a peculiar Russian sound of their own - always strangely melancholic, of a definitely Slavic quality. I've mostly seen and heard some limited CDRs, with info sometimes typed in Cyrillic, which naturally might have something to do with their relatively low publicity in other countries.

I've liked some of the work that I've heard from such projects as for example Bardoseneticcube, Noises of Russia, Hladna, Ogni Videniy, ZHA, Staruha Mha... There is also the ritual project Phurpa which might not have that much in common with 'experimental' but might be of interest to some people here still. There are more, but mostly it's just uncharted area for me. I'd really like to know more about the music done there. I am especially interested of the more 'dry' experimenters like Artemyev - these pioneer guys who weren't working with VST plugins...if they exist.

As a reminder, here's the railroad sequence from the movie 'Stalker'

[Niko]

Linija Mass, I haven't listened to it in a long time. But if I remeber correctly, it had slightly avant-gardistic approach to industrial noise.
If it's okay to recommend music from ex-USSR countries, I would recommend BUDRŪS from Lithuania. They would definately fit the "experimental/avant-garde electronics" category.

[Strömkarlen]

Not new but still great Russian industrial band was Popular Mechanics. I have one LP called Insect Culture released by Ark Records. http://www.discogs.com/artist/Популярная+Механика
Sergey wanted to have the biggest most noise orchestra he could get and combined classic trained musicians with artist banging on scrap metal.

Don't get offended by any Westbam reference. Sergey Africa (the second Sergey in the band) who was playing junk later played with Westbam but that is totally different story.

[GX Jupitter-Larsen]

For Russian electronic you might want to try Artemiy Artemiev's label Electro Shock: http://www.electroshock.ru

[tisbor]

I discovered Zga randomly years ago and i still like it a lot .. i think my favourite is the "Riga" LP , maybe because it's the first material i got..

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I think there must have been topics about it somewhere... not sure if it was troniks.
My appreciation with Russian material goes more into nature of "physically" crafted industrial works. Experimental - perhaps, but perhaps more of low-tech decay of industrial sound.
Linija Mass, Veprisuicida, Organomehanizm, Reductio Ad Absurdum, S36NZ-OKH, YAO 91404 D, Stahlnoy Pakt (perhaps more the 10"s than CD), and so on...  Many of these are noisy, but not exactly noise. Their approach seems often to be minimal equipment for very honest and primitive experimental industrial. Some bands can be crap on one release, brilliant on the next.
V/A Holy Mother Russia LP is also very nice comp. on Steinklang. Includes few of the above mentioned, but also Reutoff, Lunar Abyss Quartet, Lucisferrato, Sal Solaris, Bardoseneticcube.

Lucisferrato is pretty unique also. CD's european labels are easy to get. If I'm not mistaken, earlier material slightly darker than the later works of strange organic delay/reverb drenched flow of acoustic & vocal sounds.

[Steve]

Only recently been listening to stuff coming out of Russia and former Russian States courtesy of Terror Magazine. Budrus is superb, real dark cinematic stuff. Have a Pogrom cassette that is slightly disappointing. Standard PE, whereas their contribution to the Oorchah/Pogrom split cassette is excellent - organic industrial, and really (to these ears) fresh. I will have to get the next Pogrom release though, just to see if it was a "blip"! 

[BARAJAS]

I recently traded with this dude,
http://www.myspace.com/avrorin

His split with Biomass is pretty killer.
http://chondriticsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35799&p=367837#p367837

[dddonkey]

wow. this google is a good thing, it's detected my last name here!

i'm grisha avrorin introduced by bajaras. i'm from st-petersburg.

yes, a lot of ambient and drone here in russia. i remind in one second cisfinitum, hum, lunar abyss deus organum, hladna, noises of russia, kriptogen rundfunk, gipnoz.

cisfinitum is a most known ambient\drone\noise project in a western world, i guess. evgenij voronovskij - classically trained violinist, started his non-classical works in a middle of 90's. he is from moscow. he use violin, soviet sythesizers, feedbacks, computers. i'm not a big fan of drone ambient, but some of his works are very impressive and monumental. sometimes his works are influented by mamleev visionaries, sometimes it's a big happenings. evgenij collaborated with almost all moscow underground artists.
he is the guy with a strange sense of humour, i'm in odds with him)

hum is a duo from moscow suburbs. they both have a lot of different projects beside hum. they work with tapes, field recordings, getting drone and, well, hum. i don't know them in person.

l.a.d.o. is solo project from my city, spb. he started about 10 years ago in the band sadohypnos (with nikolaj 'hladna' kalmykov). first they did 'shamanic' industrial, then he started l.a.d.o. he has mistic conception of carelian, old russian and hindu mixed tradotions.

hladna is nikolaj kalykov, man who escaped the city and now lives with his family deep in a woods. hladna started as power electronics, then drone and now forest ambient. i met him first at my talonov net band performance back in 1998. he is a brilliant guy.

noises of russia is moscow\st-pete group guided by gosha solnzev, they play dark ambient and are the most pr'ed ambient collective. they are good guys and girls, but too much pr.

kriptogen rundfunk is artem (i forgot his last name and the name of l.a.d.o. owner, sorry), he works with radionoise and analog synths. also he runs the biggest russian ug mailorder zhelezopeton. he is very cool guy.

gipnoz - dmitrij zubov from frjazino (near moscow), drone ambient mostly analog source. he is a good man for drinking.

sorry for such short 'descriptions' it's hard for me write about ambient and write it in english. i prefer harshnoise. if you have any questions, just ask, i will find out something.

[catharticprocess]

Don't forget about the project Vetrophonia and the label Monochrome Vision. I have a ton of MV releases to sell, but haven't listed them because they were all sent without jewel cases.

[ABGVRD]

hum is a duo from moscow suburbs. they both have a lot of different projects beside hum. they work with tapes, field recordings, getting drone and, well, hum. i don't know them in person.

Not a duo but a single person, Dmitry Chistov. Very good and sincere guy.

[dddonkey]

well, thanks for correction. Dmitriy is from Fryazino too, isn't he?

Yes, Vetrophonia. But they are doing more in a way of constructivistic industrial, but I wrote about ambient.
Monochrome Vision is cool, I can't listen the most part of his releases though. And he releases mostly foreign artists.

[SKY BURIAL]

hladna is nikolaj kalykov, man who escaped the city and now lives with his family deep in a woods. hladna started as power electronics, then drone and now forest ambient. i met him first at my talonov net band performance back in 1998. he is a brilliant guy.

noises of russia is moscow\st-pete group guided by gosha solnzev, they play dark ambient and are the most pr'ed ambient collective. they are good guys and girls, but too much pr.

I played with both the above bands in Dresden. I quite enjoyed Hladna's set and the 2xcdr he gave me that evening.

[tisbor]

ah and of course :

http://www.myspace.com/maaaanoise

they live in poland now i think

[heretogo]

Any information available on Urauschwitz? I found the Zirkuszerfall cd quite intriguing although not fully successful. Can one expect more releases from them (or him/her?) in the future?