Edward
Artemiev's Musical Universe. By Tatiana Yegorova
(Vagrius Publishers, Moscow, 2007) / Crime & Punishment
(2 CD set)
This biography of Russian composer and electro-acoustic
pioneer Edward Artemiev acts as a welcome introduction to the work
of a musician who has explored and pushed forward the barriers of
musical exploration. Set amidst a backdrop of Soviet Russia and its
political and artistic repression, the composer studied classical
music at state conservatories but his eagerness to discover new forms
of music and ways to express them pushed him towards a new invention,
the synthesiser. This book charts Edward Artemiev's life and struggles
to achieve success both as a composer and explorer of the new musical
dynamics that arrived in the 1960s. It is not often that those on
the cutting edge of music also find artistic and commercial success,
but this has happened to Artemiev, thanks to a move into writing soundtrack
scores for Russian movies such as Solaris, Stalker and many other
important movies, plus groundbreaking work for the Russian theatre.
The success of this led him to being invited to Hollywood where he
has provided scores for several movies and TV movies. Alongside this
strand of his musical career, Artemiev has also explored what the
synthesiser and the modern recording studio can create, creating a
body of work that is highly experimental and yet still approachable.
The book ends with a description of Artemiev's lifelong desire to
turn the famous Russian novel Crime And Punishment by F.M. Dostoyevsky
into an opera.
The ...Musical Universe is profusely illustrated
with photographs, reviews of Artemiev's recorded releases, and a whole
section of musical examples in the form of reprints from his scores
for those who can read musical notation. The reader should be advised
that this book is written for the academic musician and even in this
English translation it is couched in the language of academia rather
than conventional English. For a non-musician like myself it was not
an 'easy' read, but anyone interested in how modern contemporary and
experimental music has developed in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia,
and in particular Edward Artemiev, then it is an invaluable reference
source.
Accompanying this book was a double CD set recording
of the above mentioned Crime And Punishment opera - the music was
composed by Edward Artemiev, with lyrics by A. Konchalovsky, M. Rozovsky
and Y. Ryashentsev. I've never read the source book for this opera,
and as it is sung in Russian I don't really have a clue what it is
all about, but musically it is very interesting indeed. The opera
is a melting pot of so many musical styles: from conventional orchestral
to prog rock grandeur, electronic atmospherics to Brechtian and Broadway
musical theatricality. This continual shift in musical styles certainly
makes for stimulating listening, and I can only applaud the cast and
musicians involved for a superb performance. Unfortunately, the CD
packaging is all in Russian so I can't mention the musicians and singers
by name. I have been told that an English language recording is due
sometime during 2008 and I look forward to hearing that in the future.
I'm not sure if the CD set is part of a package
with the book or available separately, so if you are interested in
either or both items then I suggest you contact Artemiy Artemiev via
the e-mail links on this web page for more information on availability.
Autumn
2005 New Releases
Edward Artemiev -
So Weit Die Fusse Tragen [As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me] (Electroshock
ELCD045) & Shadows Of A Theatre
(ELCD 046)
These two newest releases from Electroshock mark
a departure from the labels' strictly pro-electronic/experimental music
stance and broaden out its remit to include orchestral music and in this
case the scores for movies and theatrical plays.
So Weit Die Fusse Tragen is a movie I haven't
come across, a Russian/German co-production it tells the story of a German
soldier captured at the end of WWII and imprisoned in a Siberian labour
camp - he escapes and it takes him three years to reach his family back
in Germany. A dramatic storyline and one matched by an equally dramatic
score by Edward Artemiev. With a total of thirty-eight tracks, lasting
from under a minute to over four minutes in duration, these mini soundscapes
convey a variety of expansive mind pictures, but I particularly enjoyed
the longer pieces, especially those near the end of the album, some are
very beautiful. Listening to a movie soundtrack without the visuals of
the movie itself is always a problem as the two elements are so intrinsically
entwined together, but I think that this album works well and elements
of it could be condensed down into an orchestral suite for concert performance.
Shadows Of A Theatre, also by Edward
Artemiev, is a collection of pieces he wrote for a variety of movies
and plays. These are: Burial of the Rats, Kabala of Hypocrates,
These Three Faithful Cards, A Visit To Minotaurus, and Entrance
to the Labrynth. Again, the scores are all orchestral, with a
dash of electronics here and there. The opening sequence of tracks
[from Kabala...] are extremely enjoyable, they are in a jaunty
near-baroque style that is both delightful and draws you into the
rest of the album. I am impressed at how well this collection of music
from five different movies and plays actually works together in this
format - and works well as a cohesive album in its own right. I've
always enjoyed Edward Artemiev's previous albums, and on this brace
of soundtracks he shows himself to be skilled in the art of descriptive
music. If you are a newcomer to this composer I suggest that you try
Shadows Of A Theatre as an introduction, the musical payback
is the most immediate.
|
Electroshock
Records Winter/Spring 2004 Releases
It has been quite some time since Electroshock Records
have released a new album - 2002/2003 was taken up with a project that
sadly failed to happen - so this new batch of eight albums will please
collectors of this most exotic of Russian labels.
 The
first album is Polished Surface Of A Table by Alexei Borisev
(ELCD 037). To say that this is literally an explosion of sound is
to drastically simplify what sounds like a dramatically complex process.
I also can't say that this, to me, is musical in the traditional sense
of the definition - each track buzzes and fizzes with a cacaphonic selection
of treated and sampled sounds. Shards of high frequency aural energy jar
the psyche as they bludgeon the brain into quivering submission. In other
words this ain't no easy listening album! It comes as a relief when track
five After The Prime Time discards with the schizophrenia and turns
ambient, with spoken and singing voices. Alas, this oasis of calm is once
again fractured by the next tracks' scratchy sounds. I'm not sure that
I could listen to any of the thirteen tracks of this album again for pleasure,
it is most probably a once in a lifetime experience.
 As
with many of his albums, Artemiy Artemiev's Time, Desert And A Sound
(ELCD 038) begins with an oriental soundscape, this time the opening
track Beyond Bounds Of Reality sounds as if it is portraying the
great steppes of Siberia, with what sounds like a Mongolian throat singer
vying with flutes, choral loops floating over a bed of synths. This track
is both highly atmospheric and restful, a feature that continues with
the next track, Time, which suggests a cosmic spaciousness few
other musicians can create. Desert is another mellow track to start
with - acoustic guitars [courtesy of Valery Siver] lull one into a false
sense of peace before some ambient/industrial sounds slowly take over
the soundstage for a while before the guitar returns to bring some sort
of peace again, finally fading into a single church bell slowly tolling.
A Sound is a lengthy piece, nearly seventeen minutes long - a lone
drum beats out a simple, almost mournful rhythm while a variety of sounds
[buzzing synths, the return of the throat singer, various atmospherics]
unfold slowly. This is another one of those tracks that is enhanced if
you close your eyes and relaxe, letting it just wash over you - a strong
sense of timelessness is your reward. The final track is Mysticism
of Sound Part II, a thirty-six minute live recording from Artemiy's
Euro-Siberian tour last year. This reprises the track from a previous
album of the same name, but in an extended format, and encapsulating all
of the musical signatures that identify Artemiy Artemiev's music: glacial
clarity of sound, inventive use of regional ethnic influences and samples
and a sense of spaciousness that pushes loudspeakers to the edge.
The next Electroshock album
is by Antanas Jasenka - An Artist And A Plane (ELCD039) - and once
again we have a 'no compromise ' attitude to what one normally comprehends
as music. The opening track Inflight, starts with the simple rapid
beat of an oscillator which then broadens out to treated voices and continuously
shifting washes of electronic sound. It sounds a bit like a ghostly radio
with a dodgy tuner. Ear-Mind Bodies is next, opening with slow
moving atmospherics before some orchestra crashes and a voice come in,
along with a variety of unmusical sounds that create a collage effect.
Transmitter is a full blown blast of cacaphony that only a transistor
would love! The next track is Tonus, an apt title for an exploration
of pure tones. Skyjack Air begins with more atmospherics and repeated
bursts of an orchestral chord, this slowly mutates into a slow piano sequence
and that's about it. Final track Electronic Sutartines is pretty
much an amalgam of everything that's gone before on the previous tracks,
only in a more extreme way.
 Electrified
Music by Roderik De Man (ELCD040) has the unique feature of using
a variety of conventional acoustic instruments throughout its eight tracks
- but they are treated and altered to suit the composer/musicians' vision.
The opening track Sin Descanso has a percussive, pulsing, feel
to it even though only blockflutes and tape are used. Dark Intervals
was created for tape and has that timeless feel to it as sounds seem
to hang in the air motionless. Air To Air features a variety of
brass, woodwind and tape collages, and has a sort of 50's classical modernism
feel to it. The rest of the tracks on this album follow similar paths,
a variety of conventional instruments used in classical music are mutated
into new sounds and textures. Much of the music here has been commissioned
for dance troupes or art installations, and should be of interest to anyone
who follow the avant-garde in Art.
 Yney
- Antarctina (ELCD041) returns to the more conventional electronic
type of sound you expect from Electroshock... In fact the opening track
Appearance From Above is quite funky with a looping bassline and what
almost sounds like hip-hop-style scratching after the opening electronics
buzz and saw for a minute or so. Stroll, again starts with a pulsing
bassline and mingles with the synths - it all reminds me very much of
the German music pioneers Can. In fact the entire album has that feel,
a sense of rhythm and yes, playfulness, that one can find with music.
I really like this album, the music exhibits a sense of quirky amiability
not usually found on Electroshock releases - all the tracks have a well
defined sense of rhythm and melody, and it sounds to me that the influences
range from the previously mentioned Can, to Kraftwerk, The Yellow Magic
Orchestra and Air. If one of the star dance scene remixers got their hands
on this album I could see several of the tracks becoming club hits - and
you don't expect to say that of an Electroshock album!
Anatoly
Pereslegin's latest album is Passion Models (ELCD042), and
it continues the biblical theme of his previous albums [reviews can be
found on other pages of this Electroshock Records section]. this time
the tracks are based on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The
music is a mixture of orchestral and instrumental samples, alongside synths
and the other tools in a modern musicians' arsenal. The music is in the
style of modern clasical, with electronic overtones, certainly more musical
in the conventional sense of the word, compared to other albums in this
review. It is certainly not as confrontational, which is a relief, and
is quite listenable as music.
 Reflections
of Time, by Alexander Volodin (ELCD043), is the last of the
single artist albums in this batch. The album's theme seems to be spiritual,
if not pointing to a single religion, and opens with The Flower Is
Growing Up, a collage of chopped up sounds, atmospheres and crescendos.
Circles is a three part cycle featuring loops of sounds - time
distortions and layerings of these sounds into something almost naturalistic.
The next track, The Way To Star, is a thirty minute tone poem written
for an exhibition on Leonardo Da Vinci, and I think that old Leo would
have been intrigued by the sculpturing of sound that the composer has
created here. Finally, The Music Of My Memory, is another suite
of linked tracks, stylistically similar to the previous tracks. Not as
cacaphonic as some of the other albums, Reflections... is quite
soporific but does throw up the occasional sonic surprise to stop you
going to sleep.
Finally, Electroshock Presents Electoacoustic
Music Volume IX (ELCD044) is the labels' annual pick of the 'best
of the rest'. The artists in this compilation include Gottfried Michael
Koenig, Carl Stone, Rodrigo Sigal, Marc Cooley, Vivain Adelberg Rudow,
Simon Wickham-Smith, Eternal Wanderers and Victor Cerulio - his epic length
Rusalki is my favourite track, a spacious cosmic soundscape that
harmonises the spheres! While all these artists have their own styles,
I think it is fair to say that the atonality and cacaphony found on some
of the above albums is also present here, along with a variety of atmospherics
and ambient soundscapes which vary in their approachability by the listener.
This is experimental music of the first order, so don't expect easy listening!
So that is the latest batch of albums from Electroshock
- it strikes me that while human beings have created these artifacts one
could be forgiven into thinking that almost all of these CDs were created
by the machines themselves. That one is witnessing Art as conceived by
silicon chip. While it is an interesting experience, I can't help but
feel the loss of human spirit somewhere along the way - most of the music
on these CDs is unremittingly dour and devoid of humanity. Perhaps that
is what the composers wanted. I found the music on many of these CDs to
be intriguing but mostly too extreme for repeated listening. But if you
have an inquiring mind and wish to explore the outer limits of modern
music then Electroshock is very much the place for you!
|
