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VARIOUS ARTISTS "Roulette Russe pour un Peu de Caviar"

Press-release by Monochrome Vision

"Today as yesterday, contemporary music is the poor relation of phonographic edition. Narrowness of the market, idleness of the media, disinterest of the producers and distributors? The situation is such as to oblige the studios of contemporary music to self- release their records or find foreign co-producers. However, rather than accusing the market, it would also be necessary to take a look at and invest in the musical education of our children: do they only know the Mozarts of today, the likes of Morton Feldman, Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, John Cage, Steve Reich, Gyorgy Ligeti or Francis Dhomont. During my trip in Russia, I had the opportunity to appreciate the patience of listening and the curiosity of the public, I also shared values of open-mindedness with many composers, known, unknown, recognized or forgotten.

The "Noise of the Snow" collection, launched by the Studio Forum, stems from the same wish to promote works creating a link between sound research and musical creation and asserting the absence of borders. With this new compilation entitled "Russian roulette for a little caviar", I wish to thank my Russian friends not only for their hospitality but also for their musical spirituality, now massacred in our society of high consumption. It is also true that without the existence of the Monochrome Vision label and the Studio Forum, you wouldn't be able to listen here, in your premises, these musics not generating enough sales turnover. Good listening" (Philippe Blanchard).

Featuring projects from Moscow region, St.Petersbourg, Ryazan and Novosibirsk: Kolpakopf, Bardoseneticcube, Exit In Grey, Cisfinitum, Instant Movie Combinations, Hum, CD-R, Interior Disposition, Alexei Borisov, Kryptogen Rundfunk, Moscow Laptop Orchestra and Noises Of Russia.

Review by Vital Weekly (06.11.2007):

In Annecy, France lives Philippe Blanchard, also known as Lt. Caramel, who organized a festival called 'Bruit De La Neige' (the noise of the snow), with exclusively young Russian music makers. We come by a whole bunch whom we met on CDRs before, such as Cisfinitum, CDR, Alexey Borisov and Bardoseneticcube, but also new names names such as Interior Disposition, Moscow Laptop Orchestra, Noises Of Russia and Instant Movie Combinations. Throughout the music here seems indeed the work of young, serious men and their laptops (thus destroying what I said earlier), who all play a fair bunch of field recordings, feeding through laptops, plug ins and what have you. But also sound bricolage, using reel to reel machines, cassettes and other lo-fi quality recordings never seem far away. Not every piece is convincing, but throughout it was a most pleasant introduction into the experimental music from a different country than the usual suspects. And as such quite nice.

FdW.

Review by Heathen Harvest (15.11.2007):

What we have here is a compilation of contemporary Russian artists commissioned by the French Studio Forum for a presentation at the 'Bruit de la Neige' ('Noise of the Snow') festival in Annecy earlier this year. Perhaps that explains the title which translates to 'Russian Roulette For A Little Caviar.' Maybe it has more to do with the involvement of Phillippe Blanchard aka the artist-formerly-known-as Lieutenant Caramel, one of France's premiere electro acoustic artists of the 80s/90s, well known for having a good sense of humour. Regardless, with the exception of a couple of artists, these are all unfamiliar names from Russia's electronic underground which seems to be pretty damn fertile soil for experimental exploration. The collection segues beautifully and is thoughtfully sequenced by Dmitry Vasilyev for this fine Russian label. Yuri Gagarin would be proud of these fruits of the federation, politics be damned.

The opening track is reverb-heavy like you're trapped in some seemingly endless dark hallway. The overall ambience is sparsely punctuated by explosions and celestial synth-tones that bring to mind some of the more space-oriented electronic music practitioners of the past. The following 'Untitled' piece is not much different but stands out with its creepy processed vocal sounds and subtle rhythmic propulsion. Exit In Grey's contribution is a pleasantly static meditation of harmonically lush drones and bleeps. It's the kind of thing that is easy to get lost in and would make for a good long-form composition. Moscow's Cisfinitum ups the ambient ante with a track that nods heavily toward Eno's pioneering works in the genre. Despite a few swells here and there, it generally goes nowhere and is damn near perfect in form. 'Under Armature' sneaks in with little fanfare and continues on the drone path with a throbbing bass foundation and a dissonant buzz that gradually creeps into the foreground. There's a nice balance of the pastoral and the unsettling with the tension that it creates. Hum's track starts off with just that, a hum. Acoustic creaks, clangs, rustles and traffic ambience take over creating an interesting artificial landscape until it concludes with a high frequency whine. It doesn't come across as bleak as the title suggests, but more like several superimposed urban situations experienced simultaneously.

If the last track introduced the use of field recordings, 'Concert For Street And Shopping Center' brings them front and center until they're usurped by electronic processing in the final two minutes. A well-paced and smartly executed little bit of concrete music from CD-R. On the surface 'Montage' doesn't really reflect its title, but may very well be at the heart of the compositional process. It's a simple piece of a few layered loops that juxtaposes sounds from the mechanical and organic worlds to great effect. Alexey Borisov's modest vignette (under two minutes) 'Center Of Doom' is a real gem of feedback tones and phase shifting. It's a shame that it doesn't go on a bit more, as I know what this artist is capable of. Kryptogen Rundfunk definitely get's the prize for best named project and track title. The piece ain't too shabby either, but it's a bizarre assemblage of deep bass activity and frequency modulation that sounds a bit haphazard compared to the impeccable focus that characterize the other tracks. The Moscow Laptop Ochestra's self-termed cyberjam is a bit of a let-down as well. Laptop improvisation can be tricky and, even in the best of hands, unreliable. This one does very little for me. The longest track in the collection is saved for last by the curiously dubbed Noises Of Russia. Like the rest of the disk it's definitely not noise music per se, but a nice extended workout for loops and drones. It has a dynamic trajectory that builds in intensity but still allows space for surprises that come in the form of bursts of feedback.

So overall 10 out of 12 is pretty damn good for a compilation. I like to think that I learn something new everyday (which I do) so it's nice to learn today that Russia has as good of an experimental music scene as anyone. This is top-notch work on professionally produced CDs in an edition of 500 that are reasonably priced to boot. Excellent in an A- way.

empty j.

Review by Panorama:

Months ago I got this compilation Cd and doesn't got so much my attention, but when hearing the respective tracks, my mind begins to penetrate slowly into labyrinths of sonic fragmentations generated by twelve artists, each one of them creating different elements with a deep atmosphere developed from start to finish. Opening is KOLPAKORPF 'lalte' an ambient track with a strong structure and identity. BARDOSENETICUBE with an untitled track expressed in a psychic automatic generator due expressionism handled by the act through the whole track. EXIT INGREY '999' this Russian duo developing a drone-capturing sounds capes through dense guitar layers and analogue futuristic devises. then comes CISFINITUM 'Moscow 09.03.06.'with this definited ambient composition through a calm meditative atmosphere. INSTANT MOVIE COMBINATIONS 'under armature' drones floating in an addictive form, which creates an hypnotic voyage. HUM 'urban Despair' is not the exeption.this track is built in a perfect disturbed way. drone/dark ambient elements mixed together, as only the Russian act could generate. CD-R 'concert for the street and shopping center' a strange title track, full of street voices and deep sounds with a lot electronic devices from time to time, founding an industrial machine full of drone and a psychotic pulsations, a good job done by Nikita Golyshev . INTERIOR DISPOSITION 'montage' is a cosmic ritual trip to unknown human dimensions, an ambient exposition charged with a very dense structure. ALEXEY BORISOV comes with 'center of doom' which is an experimental track with some drone patterns and a symmetric ambient atmosphere. KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK 'no hamsters were harmed' with a drone noise fragmentation able to de-programming your brain through sonic codes and strong sounds. MOSCOW LAPTOP ORCHESTRA 'cyberjam 24.06.06' with that ambient industrial sounds and effects. And the last one artist is NOISES OF RUSSIA 'mission monotone russe en constellation du Pegasus' which closes with its characteristic drone ambient elements but always generating different elements here and there. a very great release here. To all those into ambient drone sounds this compilation will surely fill your expectatives due work developed here by each one of twelve Russian artists.

Kerval 210

Reviews in Russian: http://kr.radionoise.ru/rus/va_roulette_press.html