#28 Feat. Hype in Electronica

Sergey Komarov, Vlad Dobrovolski, Ilya Sadovsky, and Alexey Grachev, an improvisational quartet known as kurvenschreiber, fuel their vintage synthesizers with homemade solar batteries and record their sessions on reel-to-reel tapes before they can turn to dust. In their performances, they utilize generators, radios, meteorological equipment, and pre-recorded tape loops. This niche approach allows them to create an illusion of cinematic force in sound, where the sound itself becomes the main character. The power of their sonic interpretation stems from the virtuosity of juggling resonant images, offering the audience a chance to immerse in a unique audio-visual space. The most compelling aspect of Licht Ausgang is not the quartets technological tricks or references to their deep archive of tapes, but rather its restrained emotional undertone. The precise mood is as elusive as the autumn smell of leaves, yet it is simultaneously euphoric, whimsical, and grotesquely sweet. Nonetheless, the album can hardly be labeled as mere pastoral nostalgia, as theres a mystic current present in these tracks, constantly leading kurvenschreiber down strange and unexpected paths.

Kurvenschreiber

#77 Feat. Staff Picks in Electronica

Udacha family band Zdehvedo Gob channel the lysergic energies of their summer just passed with this debut release from the project. Employing an organic music approach to instrumentation combined with subtle electronics, the group go wild for various combinations of off-kilter percussion, organ, chant and birdsong in full ceremonial swing. Tracing a path through the various branches of 20th century minimalism, pan-global folk-ism's and the harmonious collective consciousness that My Life In A Bush Of Ghosts encapsulated, these Moscow studio sessions add further to the vision of the city's contemporary underground Udacha & associates are championing. Zdehvedo Gob consists of label boss A5, Anton Dvoenko and Stas Mitrofanov from Gamayun and Roman Shestaev, a newcomer to the physical world of Udacha. The group blend multiple layers of cosmic space synth and funk bass on 'Harp Phantasma', each member intuitively understanding their position in the alchemy. Roles are fixed but not strict, much like their approach to tempo and rhythm across the LP. Things get properly freaky on 'Alliluya to Love', which sits somewhere between the dissonance of Moondog and the experimental future jazz / downtempo grooves of Jimi Tenor. A real head-scrambler and another example of the creativity of the modern day Russian scene away from the Instagram business techno.

Zdehvedo Gob