Theodor Bastard - "Vetvi" [2015]

Artist: Theodor Bastard

Title: Vetvi

Genre: Darkwave, Ethnic Electronica, New Age, Trip-Hop

Country: Russia

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Umbraya Erze
2. Vetvi
3. Salameika
4. Kukushka
5. Aion
6. Niti
7. Veter (feat. Namgar)
8. Yaard
9. Beliy Gorod
10. Kolodec

The best known Russian ethnic electronica band which most likely was a major source of inspiration for projects like Lovozero. Theodor Bastard started in the second half of 90s inititally as an experimental industrial/noise project in the vein of Coil and Nurse With Wound, and the later album "BossaNova_Trip" (2001) at times sounds surprisingly similar to much later works by Access To Arasaka. By 2004, Theodor Bastard became a full band and radically changed their sound in favour of darkwave and neofolk, which brought them worldwide recognition. During the second half of 2000s, they actively toured Europe and have shared the scene with such high profile bands as Nine Inch Nails, Spiritual Front and Von Thronstahl.

"Vetvi" is their latest up to date LP, strongly inspired by the atmosphere of Russian North, especially Karelia. The album name is a reference to the branches of the mythological World Tree (Arbor mundi). Another prominent lyrical topic on "Vetvi" is the theme of death (especially of the loved ones). Musically, it's ethereal/darkwave kind of world music, strongly inspired by Dead Can Dance and early Massive Attack, but rooted in the folk tradition of Russian North. The members of Theodor Bastard travel extensively, and draw the inspiration from various folk traditions from Russian North (which is my favourite travel destination as well) to Middle East.

The best song on "Vetvi", in my opinion, is the opening one "Umbraya Erze". It sounds very beautiful, although I have no idea about the language of the lyrics (someone has said they're in Old Norse, but I'm not sure about it at all):

Some more music videos off this album:

Tikhie Kamni - "Zemli" [2015]

Artist: Tikhie Kamni

Title: Zemli

Genre: Ambient, Folktronica

Country: Russia

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Rukava
2. Zemli / Crimea
3. Khibiny
4. Vethii
5. Sokolgora
6. Yarkii
7. Tam Dojd’
8. Podlesok

Tikhie Kamni ("Silent Stones", taken from a line from the song "Khibiny") is a collaboration between members of Lovozero and Moa Pillar. Compared to Lovozero, the sound is more minimalistic and ambient-oriented. The tracks are mostly instrumental or with lyrics that fit into a single line. Overall, it isn't as interesting as Lovozero's solo works, but certainly enjoyable, especially because I feel close to the theme of this album:

"A duo of Anastasia Tolchneva (Lovozero) and Fedor Pereverzev (Moa Pillar) have recorded "Zemli" ("Lands") hiking, making field recordings and improvising while on the road – and what a soulful ambient record it is!

No status, no background, no ego, no bullshit. Heartfelt folk vistas make way for ethereal Cocteau Twins-style cuts, deep drones, aural accidents and minimalist piano. These songs are sonic diaries of young people exploring Russia's valleys and hills, rivers and lakes. Not intended for a release, the personal recordings possess that strange magic lots of "psychedelic collage" records lack.

Anastasia and Fedor are no strangers to audio-production, though. Pereverzev's Moa Pillar project is one of the Russian scene's best-kept secrets – he makes that kind of eerie bass music that's rooted in song and dipped in power ambient. Tolchneva's solo act Lovozero is a different beast whatsoever: think beats with digital sheen and Russian folk song.

Tikhie Kamni is a true gem – quiet, intimate and easy to miss. Music made for no one that can be enjoyed by anyone"

UUTAi - "Live Jew's Harp" [2013]

Artist: UUTAi

Title: Live Jew's Harp

Genre: Folk, New Age

Country: Russia (Yakutia)

Release date: 2013

Track List:

1. Silence Breath
2. Sky Songs
3. Races
4. Water Games
5. The Lunar Shaman
6. Legend About Ancient Fights
7. Races (Strana 03 rmx)

After posting Lovozero on here, I thought it'd wouldn't hurt to post Uutai too. Uutai plays Yakutian khomus, an instrument which for some unknown reason is commonly called "Jew's harp" in English, although it doesn't have anything to do with Jews and traditional Jewish music. There's some confusion about her real name: according to the cover art of this album, it's Olga Podluzhnaya; however, Uutai refers to herself as Olena (an Ukrainian name, although Uutai says she doesn't have Ukrainian roots and doesn't know the language). Anyway, she's a very talented musician whose music certainly should be recorded to anyone who's into Siberian shamanic folk (like the solo works of Veronika Oshulik).

Uutai became widely known after the video of one of her performances ("Siberian shaman lady") went viral on Youtube, and it's well deserved - her performance was amazing, and her vocal abilites (including the ability to imitate animal sounds) are great. Funny enough, a lot of people in the comments say that she has very beautiful armpits - that'd be one of the most original compliments I've heard of :)

After the success of this video, she performed at a lot of shows in various countries, but in come cases her music wasn't met well (understandable, because her style is too weird and exotic for an unexperienced listener). However, her performance on Britain's Got Talent apparently was quite successful:

Kageraw - s/t [2013]

Artist: Kageraw

Title: Kageraw

Genre: Ambient, Musique Concrete

Country: Russia

Release date: 2013

Track List:

1. Когда приходит весна, я знаю мы будем счастливы
2. loodust imetlema
3. аrmastuseavaldus
4. hingerahu
5. viik
6. one year old
7. военная добыча
8. loodust imetlema (vocal version)

A quite unusual album consisting mostly of piano melodies mixed with the sounds of nature and whispering spoken word vocals. More than half of the track names are in Estonian (no idea why). The later releases from Kageraw gravitate towards pure piano sound and meditation/yoga music, and the earlier stuff (including this debut album) is more experimental and therefore more in the spirit of my blog. Out of what was posted on here before, I'd compare it to "Slower Structures" by Tamás Kátai - it's just as atmospheric, minimalistic, melancholic and piano-driven, albeit noticeably more lo-fi.  According to the release notes, it was recorded at home in Zhukovsky (Moscow region) during the 2012-2013, and finished on the first days of May, 2013 - so, exactly 6 years ago.

Kageraw's real name is Yulia, and she was playing in several punk and metal bands at the time this album was released. Aside from music, she's apparently very interested in photography and visual art in general (judging from her Instagram and other social media), and just like many other female musicians, she's a bit of an amateur model herself. In particular, I really liked this photo of her:

The scenery and composition is amazing, as well as the post-processing. And as a bonus to that, Yulia has quite beautiful legs ;) But let's go back to her music:

Lovozero - "Zagovory" [2015]

Artist: Lovozero

Title: Zagovory

Genre: Ambient, Folktronica

Country: Russia

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Raspevy
2. Travy
3. Oberegy
4. Zagovory
5. Domoi

This project caught my attention because it's named after one of the biggest lakes in the European part of Russian Arctic and the centre of Kildin Sami culture in Russia.  With such a name, it just don't have the right to be bad, and this EP indeed turned out to be pretty interesting.

Lovozero is an alias of Anastasia Tolchneva, who mixes the authentic folk music of the Russian North (the ethnocultural region that I absolutely love) with the ambient/new age electronica - basically, the Northern Russian folk tradition adapted for the modern hipster's taste. According to Anastasia: "It is not about cultural codes. These compositions are my intuitive responses to chaotic life scenarios". The "Zagovory" EP, described as "spells and electrical roundelays", is her most accessible release (at least compared to the subsequient full-length album "Moroka", which is much more experimental). Very beautiful music, just like the nature of the region where that folk tradition comes from. Enjoy:

Oyme - "Horol Ebel" (music video)

Oyme is one of the few bands whose news I follow very closely. They're an unique all-female project whose mission is to collect the authentic folk music of Finno-Ugric minorities of Russia (the cultures unfourtunately very few people care about), and to make its modern interpretations. However, this new song and music video is based on the pre-Islamic folklore of the Nakh-Dagestani (more precisely, Avar) people:

The leading voice of Oyme, Ezhevika Spirkina, is a professional ethnomusicologist that's very happy to answer any question about the cultures she studies. Last year she spent quite a lot of time and efforts to gather the obscure musical folklore of rural parts of Dagestan (she met with the members of Inoe, among others), and the first results you can see in the video above. The name of the song and video translates to "Mother of Wind", which is a reference to a pre-Islamic Avar deity.

It should be noted, though, that this work got a lot of flak from both the radical nationalist elements among the Finno-Ugric peoples (which perceived an interest in a non-FU culture, especially a Muslim one, as a betrayal, although being interested in different cultures is a crucially important part of being a good ethnographer), and some strictly religious people in Dagestan which didn't take well the perceived pagan connotations of the video (even if Ezhevika explicitly stated that's now what the video is about). Some of them also didn't like her attire - which is surely un-Islamic, and doesn't need to be (needless to say she's also a model with a very beautiful figure, and she has every right to be proud of it).

The band themselves view the "Horol Ebel" video as a multi-layered work, which is, among other things, a social project that concerns the cultural heritage of humanity transcending the national/ethnic and religious boundaries. The video was filmed in Gamsutl, a historical village in the mountainous rural Dagestan, which is mostly abandoned and ruined by now. Oyme expresses hope for the minor languages to live on, and the heritage monuments like Gamsutl, or Notre-Dame de Paris, or the Dormition Church in Karelia, to be restored.

Feel free to share the video anywhere you want.

Closing The Eternity - "Kosmodrones" [2011]

Artist: Closing The Eternity

Title: Kosmodrones

Genre: Dark Ambient, Drone

Country: Russia

Release date: 2011 (recorded 1999-2002)

Track List:

1. Только жёлтая заря
2. Только звезды ледяные
3. Только миллионы лет

It's time to post here something by the last major project of Anton Shafarostov aka 121 that wasn't featured on my blog yet. You might know 121 by such projects as Velehentor, Valhalla, Nuclear Winter, or Кобь, or if you can read Russian - by his Twilight Shadows webzine (which, unfortunately, seems to be defunct now). Under the CtE moniker, he released several space ambient/drone albums whose main theme is the insignificance of Earth and the human civilization on the cosmic scale:

"The sound of CLOSING THE ETERNITY is based upon drones, and developed with ambient and noise touches. The first and the second albums were written in very misanthropic and materially-minded way. Then 121 made a pause to conceive the essence of CLOSING THE ETERNITY as a ultimate abstraction from all human-related aspects… from everything that could be concerned with terrestrial civilisation"

Like the other projects of 121, CtE sounds quite professional when compared to most other underground music projects in 90's and early 2000s' Russia. Let's be honest: drone ambient is often considered to be quite low effort genre, but this can't be said about CtE, despite the minimalistic composition of the music. According to 121, he became interested in ambient music after he heard "Comala" by Jorge Reyes as a kid in 1986, but he started making his own music only in late 90s. 121 himself describes the sound of "Kosmodrones" as "deeply spatial dark drones with distant and haunting melodic lines". The track titles are taken from a short nihilist poem by Georgy Ivanov, which is one of my favourites too.

121 seems to have completely quit making his own music after the release of the "Ceremonial Death" EP by Velehentor, although he mixed and mastered albums for several black metal bands in the last few years. According to this article (which even mentions my blog, by the way), the maestro was also spotted at a 2013 convention of electronic music composers in California. And yes, he's now a high-ranked official, which isn't a big surprise - after all, prime ministers and even presidents that listen to metal aren't unheard of, and misanthropy is a trait that's certainly expected from a public official, but... Just watch this video. Does that man wearing glasses looks like a black metal musician? Yet he is (or, at least, was):

Download

Bad Sector - "Kosmodrom" [2005]

Artist: Bad Sector

Title: Космодром

Genre: Dark Ambient, Industrial

Country: Italy

Release date: 2006 (2xCD reissue 2013)

Track List:

1. Energiya
2. Telemetry
3. June 16, 1963
4. Baikonur
5. Extravehicular
6. Vjezna
7. Orbiter
8. Beacon
9. April 12, 1961
10. Kosmos

Bonus CD:

1. Oktober 4, 1957
2. Extravehicular 2
3. Cosmos 69
4. Plesetsk
5. Almaz
6. Zvezdi
7. Kapustin Yar
8. Чайка
9. Extravehicular 3

On Cosmonauts' Day, I'm posting this conceptual work by Massimo Magrini, dedicated to the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and their practical applications that ultimately led to the first human spaceflight on April 12, 1961 (the case where you can use the words "rocket science" unironically). Parts of it were recorded in Moscow and St. Petersburg using the old Soviet ANS synthesizers (those were already mentioned on my blog several times in connection to the history of Russian/Soviet synthpop). I'd bet that Massimo's music is better known here than at his home in Italy, partially because of this release too :)

When it comes to sound, "Kosmodrom" doesn't offer many surprises to the fans of Bad Sector. Like Massimo's other releases, it's better described as sound engineering (a field that Massimo possesses a scientific degree in) rather than music, and it's intended to be the modern (post-)industrial music in its pure form. However, you aren't going to hear any harsh noise on there; it's "nerdy" cosmic ambient for the most part, with some occasional elements of rhythmic noise. This 2xCD edition was released by Loki-Found, a German label specialized in dark/cosmic ambient, in 2013, and it's partially available as a free listen on Bandcamp. Of course, you also can download it from dark-world.ru or elsewhere, especially considering that Massimo himself has nothing against musical piracy and admits being a pirate himself :3

Nambavan - "Last Night The DJ Shaved My Ass" [2006]

Artist: Nambavan

Title: Last Night The DJ Shaved My Ass

Genre: Experimental, Minimal Techno

Country: Russia

Release date: 2006

Track List:

1. Last Night The DJ Shaved My Ass
2. Shooting On The Gay-Party
3. Sad Song
4. Tunnel
5. You Should Be Dancing Dub

Honestly, until today I never thought I'd ever post anything related to Nambavan on here. But today's the 1st of April, so why not? Moreover, this particular album suprisingly fits the spirit of my blog quite well, which can't be said about the rest of Nambavan discography.

Nambavan (pronounced as "number one" with a thick Russian accent) is a moniker of Linar Bilalov, who is also known as an owner of a now defunct site bratan.info (which was pretty much the 2000s equivalent of Life of Boris). He has released several albums of trashy electronic music with offensive lyrics, which would be best described as "unintelligent dance music" (in fact, it sounds more like electroclash than anything else). While there's not much in the discography of Nambavan worth listening to, his cartoonishly anti-intellectual image has became a meme that's still remembered after almost a decade of inactivity. The last.fm biography of Nambavan is worth checking out too:

Using a broken $3 mic, an $80 guitar and an old Casio keyboard, Nambavan puts together dirty disco tracks that will pizdelovka you on the dance floor. Time and space traveler Nambavan brings you the nasty eighties punk pop that the USSR never had, coveting and cultivating dancefloor rhythms, analogue distortions and droll hip hop references.
At his home in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, where few make their own music, Nambavan started out by enrolling in a music school to learn the guitar, but was expelled for not being able to remember songs. He moved on to the digital world, bought his first PC in 2000 and started composing.

This album, however, is very different. With its name being an obvious pun on "Last Night The DJ Saved My Life" (and no, "Shooting On The Gay Party" obviously isn't a reference to the Orlando massacre which happened a decade after this track was recorded, although cynical references of this kind are very much in the habit of Nambavan), it's the only entirely instrumental album of Nambavan which offers a pretty interesting mixture of noises, clicks and other experimental sounds. Headphone listening is recommended:

Nambavan’s first album without vocal and electronic melodies, written down after two weeks of experiments with analog noise, clicks, delays, highpass house filters and broken groove rhythms.
You will feel how music collapses in your head.

All in all, I haven't expected anything like this from Nambavan, and if you're a fancier of obscure experimental electronic music, it will be a very interesting find for you... or maybe not. But seriously, what would you expect from an album that's literally titled "Last Night The DJ Shaved My Ass"?..

V/A - "Xypnima II" [2011]

Artist: (various)

Title: Xypnima II

Genre: Dark Ambient, Post-Industrial, Trip-Hop

Country: Russia

Release date: 2011

Track List:

1. The Most eeElusive Orchestra - Kookla
2. Dome Reflector - Dextera Domini
3. MRKB - Edentification
4. Āv Ux - Īŋŋjoadtmušš
5. Радиосознания - Красные Тракты Весны (Vernal Red Traces)

One of the compilations by Heliophagia net label dedicated to the day of spring equinox, released in March 2011 (8 years already have passed since then... oh shi--). Like the other early compilations by Heliophagia, it mostly features bedroom dark ambient/drone project, although the last track stands out not only this compilation, but anything released on Heliolatria in general. It's performed by a self-described "badtrip-hop" duo led by Najnas, and this compilation deserves to be posted on here for this track alone. If you like an atmospheric mix of hip-hop and industrial/dark ambient in the vein of Dälek, this one is highly recommended for you. Sadly, just like the other projects of Najnas, they had a lot of potential but never released a proper album...

Heli Keinonen ‎- "Ajettih Da Tšiganaiset" [1966]

Artist: Heli Keinonen

Title: Ajettih Da Tšiganaiset 7''

Genre: Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Country: Finland

Release date: 1966

Track List:

1. Ajettih Da Tšiganaiset
2. Ruskie Neitšyt, Valgie Neitšyt

I found out about Heli Keinonen because of Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat,who sampled one of her songs on their album "Valkoinen Terrori". There's next to no information about her in English, but I managed to find some info in Finnish and Russian - not much anyway, but enough to conclude that she was and still is an outstanding and controversial person.

So, Heli Keinonen was born April 5th, 1943 in Joensuu, Finland, and became famous in mid-1960s as a singer of traditional Karelian songs. In particular, the second song off this 7'' vinyl became a big hit that's still performed by many folk singers in Finland. She released a few more 7'' singles during the second half of 1960s, but they weren't as successful as this one. Later in 1970s, she became involved in radical politics (if I understood the Finnish sources correctly, it happened after she married some well-known undergrond writer and activist) and started to sing political songs, the best known of which is "Kuolemaantuomitun Hyvästijättö" - the one that was used by KM on "Valkoinen Terrori". During the 1980s, she worked in Sudan where she eventually decided to convert to Islam, although sources say that she never followed the Islamic dress code and generally didn't take it too seriously. As of late 2009, she was teaching Arabic language in Finland, although she's most likely retired by now.

Regardless of some questionable life choices, this 7'' shows that she certainly was a good singer. Here's one more Karelian folk song (according to the description, it's about a girl and a boy meeting at well) performed by Heli live on YLE TV in 1967. The melody reminds me of some Russian and ukrainian folk songs, and the language sounds like Finnish with slightly different phonetics and some random Russian words thrown in:

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Marja Üldine - "Own My Fears" [2019]

Artist: Marja Üldine

Title: Own My Fears

Genre: Gothic Rock/Metal, Doom Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2019

Track List:

1. My own fears
2. Dontcryever
3. Live under the bridge
4. Waking up
5. Remember this day
6. Knock-knock
7. Sirens
8. Cosmic weed (bonus track)

Marja Üldine is a Vepsian folk singer, but if you expect her debut album "Own My Fears" to be a typical Finno-Ugric folk album, you're in for a big surprise (if not disappointment). All the lyrics on "Own My Fears" are in English, and the music has little to do with traditional folk or even folk metal. The singer herself described it as "hard rock", but it isn't telling much (because, at least here, "hard rock" is pretty much an old-fashioned term for anything heavier than The Beatles).

As for me, "Own My Fears" sounds more like mid-90s The Gathering and other gothic/doom metal bands of the same era, rather than anything else. The whole album leaves an impression as it was recorded some time during early-mid 2000s, with the appropriate cover artwork (a very stereotypical one for an early 2000s gothic metal album) and quality of production. It certainly evokes a lot of nostalgia for these times, so I wasn't disappointed by this album, but as for future releases from Marja Üldine -I'd like to hear more Vepsian folk (a much rarer thing than gothic/doom metal, that's for sure) with lyrics in her native language.

La Torture des Ténèbres - "IV - Memoirs of a Machine Girl" [2017]

Artist: La Torture des Ténèbres

Title: IV - Memoirs of a Machine Girl

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal, Noise

Country: Canada

Release date: 2017

Track List:

1. Staring at the Stars to the Sound of Trucks Revving in the Distance
2. Enigma of the Intergalactic Canyon
3. Somewhere in Brockville, in a Restroom Stall
4. Love Pumps Through My Veins as Quickly as You Kiss Me Goodbye
5. Thank You for Holding My Hand Through Every Haunted House
6. Lysol, Scrub Away Your Sanity

I discovered this one-woman project from Ottawa in a blog that specializes in martial industrial, which surprised me because the style was claimed as 'black metal". This album indeed turned out to be based in atmospheric black metal, but heavily mixed with dark ambient, noise, and martial industrial elements, creating a very oppressive post-apocalyptic horror atmosphere. Compared to other one-female black metal projects I've posted on here before, like Sylvaine or Lonely Star, this one is definitely much harder to get into. "IV - Memoirs of a Machine Girl" is easily one of the most "inhuman" releases I've listened to in the last couple of years (and I listen to a lot of black metal and noise). You may love or hate this album at the first listen, but it's unlikely to leave you indifferent. And, of course, it has a great retrofuturistic cover art (which is a painting by Hugh Ferriss, if I'm not mistaken), one look at which would be enough to understand what to expect from this album: the music from a dystopian world of gigantic structures and mechanisms.

Tidfall - "Nucleus" [2003]

Artist: Tidfall

Title: Nucleus

Genre: Industrial Black Metal

Country: Norway

Release date: 2003

Track List:

1. Future Doom
2. Nucleus
3. Neo-Torment
4. Mercury Mesh
5. Soil of Tomorrow
6. Psychotronica
7. Zounds
8. Exo-Skeleton
9. Tech

On the two albums following Tidfall's debut "Circular Supremacy", Tidfall took a more industrial metal direction. In fact, they were one of the first (if not the very first) industrial black metal bands I've discovered during the times when I was just starting to get into metal. Surely, they aren't as well-known as their compatriots Thorns or Mysticum, and this album doesn't contain any particularly big hits, yet I think this album is highly overlooked. It's industrial black metal the way I expect it to be, and the appropriate lyrical themes along with the "mechanical"/futuristic atmosphere are in place:

Tidfall - "Circular Supremacy" [2000]

Artist: Tidfall

Title: Circular Supremacy

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Country: Norway

Release date: 2000

Track List:

1. In the Eyes of Death
2. A Hidden Realm
3. Allured by Grief
4. Black Psychotic Darkness
5. Bloodact
6. Shining Serpent
7. In a Dark Dream
8. Empty Silence
9. Reflections
10. Hymn to Fall

Tidfall is a rather obscure Norwegian black metal band formed in 1992, released a first demo in 1997, and put on an indefinite hiatus in 2005. Most reviewers describe them as a mediocre project that failed to bring anything new to the scene, but I do think such reputation is undeserved. Surely there are many Norwegian black metal bands from the same era that are far more famous, and when it comes to symphonic black metal in particular, Tidfall's "Circular Supremacy" doesn't get on the same level as such classics as "Nexus Polaris" by Covenant, yet I think it's still pretty powerful and certainly deserves a listen: