<SEASON 4>
Participants in the fourth season worked with the archives of Cyber-Femin-Club
Participants in the fourth season worked with the archives of Cyber-Femin-Club
Text Link
And everyone else is also groping in the dark
And everyone else is also groping in the dark
Katya Shirshkova, Yura Kuznetsov

Katya Shirshkova’s electro-acoustic play about the muteness of language and the voice in the face of catastrophe.

Photo: Zhanna Tatarova

The first part of the composition is constructed around an excerpt from an English translation of a poem by the Spanish poet, playwright, and anti-fascist Miguel Hernández in which there is a vague presentiment of the losses of a previous life.

What does the wind of bitterness want

that it comes down the gully

and forces the windows

while I dress you in my arms?

Katya re-records her own voice numerous times with the help of a looper, finally deconstructing the text to the point of zero semantic content. This process aims to hear what is between the lines, among the splinters and lacunae of language, which cannot express the experience of tragedy.

The second part of the composition was created together with the sound artist Yura Kuznetsov and is an original inversion of the first part—a nullification, careful listening to the search for that which cannot be expressed directly. The basis of this part was Shirshkova’s repeatedly resynthesized voice, which is transformed into a disturbing flow of sound. The movement of this flow is not fast and is nothing like a river. It is better compared to a cautious wandering in the dark or feeling one’s way.

Biography

Katya Shirshkova is a vocalist and composer of experimental music who works at the intersection of the academic avant-garde, sound art, and performance.

Yura Kuznetsov is a musician, media artist, and sound artist and the founder of the music label Cancelled Records.

СПИСОК ТРЕКОВ
Tracklist
Text Link
Maiden Memory
Maiden Memory
margaritki

Poetic glossolalia about the destruction of the boundaries of official language, gender models, and cultural memory.

Photo: Valentina Bek

In this work, archives of audio recordings, radio and TV programs, films, and educational programs become markers of official memory. In it we see the unification and conservation of exemplary and explanatory excerpts from life and language/voice patterns. The friendly intonations of the presenters that flow into the space of history and culture are copied every time. And now, repeat after me. Now you speak. 

This is the choreography of the trained voice: precise and regulated phrases, correct pronunciation, professional intonation, correct emotions. An ossified emptiness wrapped as a sweet.

Unreflective articulation and behavioral norms, unreflective repetitions of a phrase are figures of alienation translated by older women. We do not look into the emptiness but fill the space of fear with a speech pattern. Like an invocation. Hour by hour and it’s no easier, woe is me, maiden memory.

My maiden memory. Like cards that have fallen from a pack, like the depths of a lake and unconscious codes, unossified material, scrappy, changeable, alive. We listen in to the world of sacred memory, to diaries, folklore, informal sound archives, the space of personal choice. Voice—speech—song.

Biography

margaritki is the duet Olga Zubova and Maria Karpovich, who work at the intersection of sound art, performance, sound research, and educational and laboratory practices. In their projects, margaritki work with found sounds, field recordings, voices, and various regimes and means of listening.

СПИСОК ТРЕКОВ
Tracklist
Text Link
L.ESPACE
L.ESPACE
Diana Romanova

Diana Romanova’s mixtape is made up of functional soundtracks for videogame interfaces. In this way, digital non-places and liminal spaces of virtual worlds become a metaphor for the timelessness of our reality.

Cover photo: Courtesy of Diana Romanova

Liminal spaces in videogames—intermediary scenes, service screens, and functional sections—usually have specific sounds that are attractive in order to retain the player’s attention but not too dynamic in order that they do not spend a lot of time there.

Being inside those spaces, unlike playing the main game, is like being in a state of suspended animation, as when a person is facing major external crises that they cannot influence. Being in a static, timeless bubble produces a feeling of comfort and enables a delay in coming into contact with something frightening. However, sooner or later this period must come to an end. The player needs to continue going forward, to make it to unknown locations, to solve puzzles, and obtain tools that will help them deal with scary reality. In this way, the zones of digital “non-being” allow us to develop new means of overcoming and working with reality.

Bio

Diana Romanova is an intermedia artist and sound researcher. In her works she interacts with silence in the broadest meaning of the term. She is developing the idea of reassembling sound concepts as an alternative form of political activity and the practice of listening as an exercise in non-violence.

СПИСОК ТРЕКОВ
Tracklist
Text Link
Resignation
Resignation
Artem Makarsky

Sounds from random videos, diary entries, voice messages, the city soundscape: the contents of the author’s telephone and those of his friends turned inside out become an uncompromising consideration of nostalgia, the personal relationship to history, and the nature of memories.

Cover photo: Courtesy of Artem Makarsky

Nostalgia. Is any phenomenon more poisonous while being so hopeful?

For most of the past decade I was studying (but not conceptualizing) the problem of nostalgia and the mechanisms of memory. For some time, I have been considering how damaging the constant return to the past can be. An addition to this internal dialogue is my thoughts that we have become accustomed to noting only good and pleasant things in the past, that which helps us to build our usual picture of a world which we would not wish to see destroyed. A year ago, my text about the relationship to the past would have been completely different. Now I think that exploring history and memory, both my own and in general, is something without which we cannot move on.

My first step toward this (re)conceptualization is this work. History that begins with the personal, which, as we know, is political, can be rewritten more than once against your will. The answer to this may be to document your own perception of events. And its best embodiment, in my view, is not your own memory but that of your smartphone.

Most of the recordings used to create Resignation were made in the first two weeks after February 24. They are mainly videos shot by me and my friends (used with their permission). To be honest, it’s impossible to understand what’s going on in these videos. Most of them involve a large number of filters. This is an artistic decision, my commentary on how unreliable memories can be and how silence (or, in the case of Resignation, reticence) is a distinguishing feature of public expression in the Russian context.

As a bridge between my own compositions, I chose sounds from St. Petersburg recorded by my friend for her own work; since I know the city better than the country as a whole, I believe I should talk only about it. Undoubtedly, the soundscape of St. Petersburg may not have changed in a year, but that does not mean what is happening in the world has no influence on the city. However, I deliberately leave that influence out of shot (literally, by removing the video part and leaving only sounds). For the listener, my work can be a reminder of how much personal perception of upheaval and catastrophes (my tracks were created from memories of February 2022) sound louder, more chaotic and severe than the quiet and calm perception of the community (the untouched everyday sounds of the city).

Resignation is an attempt to look at the events that happened a year ago through the prism of personal experience. The destruction of the picture of the world that I tried to express in sound is something I see not only as an ending but also as a new beginning, although this is not something I am optimistic about. I am more realistic about the fact that we need to look from the opposite side at those maxims on which the old worldview was constructed. After looking back in this way, we have the opportunity to move on. It turns out that memories are not something we need for nostalgia but to make a more sober evaluation of events, initially moving from the point at which we are now. There is no other way.

Bio

Artem Makarsky (Intern) is a musician working with field recordings and found samples. He has released three albums—Probation Period (2017), an era of lush (2019), and Cancelled Call (2022). His interests include ambient, noise, non-music, exploring the subconscious in everyday sounds and its liberation, and working with memory, the world around us, and culture. He has written for music and culture sections in most of the leading online publications in Russia.

СПИСОК ТРЕКОВ
Для создания музыки использованы видео Полины Анисимовой, Насти Голубевой, Ани Калачиной, Максима Райхруда, а также аудио и видео Артема Макарского. Между композициями звучат фрагменты из видео, снятых Настей Голубевой в феврале–марте 2022 года.
Text Link
North Eurasia Found Tapes: 001–050
North Eurasia Found Tapes: 001–050
Egor Klochikhin, Foresteppe

This collage by Egor Klochikhin comprises fragments of the (post)Soviet everyday retrieved from obscurity, shards of a time gone by that, with the help of the attentive vision and hearing of a historian, are transformed into a tale of past, present, and future.

Photo: Katya Egorova

The mixtape is based on digitized recordings from the enormous archive North Eurasia Found Tapes, which Egor Klochikhin and artist Ekaterina Egorova have carefully preserved and made freely accessible.

The recordings on these cassettes present the everyday life and musical tastes of the (post)Soviet person: Russian variety, foreign pop, classical, electronica, new age, educational programs, outtakes from everyday speech. At some point people listened to or (re)recorded these sounds: for entertainment, for relaxation, for education, for healing, for distribution, for study, for revelation.

All of the audio materials recorded on the tapes were either forgotten or lost by their previous owners before ending up in Klochikhin and Egorova’s archive. The sounds are now mixed up with other sounds—most of the tapes were used by Egor to create new compositions. Perhaps this process should be referred to as transformation rather than disappearance.

The tapes were found in Berdsk, Yakutsk, and Moscow from 2015 to 2021.

Bio

Egor Klochikhin is a musician, artist, and history teacher. As Foresteppe he has released several albums on Russian and international labels. Since 2017 he has also been involved in creating sound installations.

СПИСОК ТРЕКОВ
Tracklist
00:00
I
Text Link
15:00
II
Text Link
00:11–01:10
Let’s Get to Know Each Other. A TV Russian Language Course (1981)
Text Link
01:11–04:12
We Speak Russian. Lesson 26. At the Sanatorium (1977)
Text Link
04:12–05:50
N.V. Karavanova, Survival Russian. Correcting Russian Phonetics
Text Link
04:12–06:20
Word Stress. Advice from TV Presenters (TV program Russian Language, October 24, 1986)
Text Link
05:50–09:35
Russian Language. Primary School, USSR. YouTube video
Text Link
07:23–08:50
Mowgli (1973)
Sofia Gubaidullina
Text Link
09:10–12:37
Red Laughter 2014. YouTube video
Text Link
09:15–12:16
N.V. Karavanova, Survival Russian. Correcting Russian Phonetics
Text Link
12:35–13:26
Stage Speech, first film (1988)
Text Link
12:50–13:15
Introduction to Russian Pronunciation (c. 1960)
Text Link
13:15–13:45
Let’s Get to Know Each Other. A TV Russian Language Course (1981)
Text Link
14:07–17:19
“Nocturne” (from the film To Love) 
Mikael Tariverdiev
Text Link
17:10–17:40
“Wonderful Country” (from the film Assa) 
Zhanna Aguzarova
Text Link
17:13–17:35
We Speak Russian. Lesson 10. The Service Desk (1977)
Text Link
17:36–18:01
“Be Happy”
Nastya Poleva
Text Link
18:01–18:45
“Russian Patterns” (1980)
Berezka Ensemble
Text Link
18:13–19:17
“The Garment Marked N” (TV program Vremya, March 13, 1977)
Text Link
19:53–21:27
“The Fast River Overflowed”
Olga Trushina
Text Link
22:04–23:18
Stage Speech, first film (1988)
Text Link
23:26–23:55
Excerpt from the film The Magic Weaver (1959)
Text Link
24:45–29:10
“Don’t Cry” (Neftyanik Stadium, Novokuibyshevsk, 1991)
Tatyana Bulanova
Text Link
00:00–01:08
NEFT_010_B
Text Link
00:55–02:40
NEFT_050_B
Text Link
01:55–03:12
NEFT_007_B
Text Link
02:33–03:30
NEFT_019_B
Text Link
02:54–04:19
NEFT_012_B
Text Link
03:35–06:05
NEFT_006_A
Text Link
03:41–05:14
NEFT_036_B
Text Link
05:10–06:17
NEFT_029_A
Text Link
06:00–06:44
NEFT_008_B
Text Link
06:35–08:10
NEFT_028_B
Text Link
07:26–08:24
NEFT_009_A
Text Link
08:19–09:24
NEFT_015_A
Text Link
09:06–10:51
NEFT_038_B
Text Link
10:23–11:40
NEFT_018_B
Text Link
11:15–12:49
NEFT_032_A
Text Link
12:30–13:50
NEFT_011_B
Text Link
12:49–15:09
NEFT_002_A
Text Link
14:20–15:59
NEFT_003_A
Text Link
15:16–16:32
NEFT_031_B
Text Link
16:03–17:02
NEFT_012_A
Text Link
16:48–17:39
NEFT_021_B
Text Link
17:16–19:48
NEFT_035_B
Text Link
18:15–19:35
NEFT_010_A
Text Link
19:26–22:00
NEFT_017_B
Text Link
20:36–22:46
NEFT_023_B
Text Link
21:27–23:44
NEFT_024_A
Text Link
22:56–24:02
NEFT_027_A
Text Link
24:02–25:01
NEFT_038_A
Text Link
24:29–25:51
24:29–25:51
Text Link
24:49–27:14
NEFT_016_B
Text Link
25:21–28:18
NEFT_014_B
Text Link
27:14–29:54
NEFT_007_A
Text Link
28:45–30:19
NEFT_004_A
Text Link
29:52–30:49
NEFT_005_A
Text Link
30:07–31:51
NEFT_022_B
Text Link
31:00–31:53
NEFT_026_B
Text Link
31:19–34:03
NEFT_001_A
Text Link
32:28–34:12
NEFT_034_B
Text Link
00:00
Recording 28.12.2022, 01:34
Text Link
05:20
AVCHD (Excerpt 1, 01:48)
Text Link
05:34
Recording 10.12.2022, 02:52
Text Link
09:17
AVCHD (Excerpt 2, 05:19)
Text Link
09:38
Recording 02.01.2023, 18:12
Text Link
14:27
AVCHD (Excerpt 3, 02:08)
Text Link
14:50
Recording 28.12.2022, 17:58
Text Link
21:12
AVCHD (Excerpt 4, 08:09)
Text Link
21:23
Recording 01.01.2023, 18:59
Text Link
28:17
AVCHD (Excerpt 5, 09:55)
Text Link
28:28
Recording 28.12.2022, 01:34 (Continued)
Text Link
00:00–07:28
Background spaces from Transistor (2014)
Text Link
04:32–16:12
Background spaces from Hades (2020)
Text Link
15:12–17:52
Desert (feat. Pantayo) (OST Severed)
YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN
Text Link
17:48–19:04
Print3mps
Diana Romanova
Text Link
19:00–22:20
Sample Fragments and Synth Etudes
Diana Romanova
Text Link
22:20–30:33
Background spaces from Hades (2020)
Text Link
25:10–28:17
Background spaces from Halo 3 (2007)
Text Link
27:48–30:17
Death (feat. Pantayo) (OST Severed)
YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN
Text Link
0:00—0:23
Text Link
0:00—0:23
Text Link
0:00—0:23
Text Link
0:00—0:23
Text Link
0:00—0:23
Samtsy Dronta – Fish Hunt (1991)
Author
Text Link
0:00—0:23
Трек
Author track
Text Link
0:00—0:23
Samtsy Dronta – Fish Hunt (1991) Samtsy Dronta – Fish Hunt (1991)
Evgeny Gorbunov
Text Link
0:00—0:23
Excerpts from the film Life Will Be a Photograph (2009)
DIG Store
Text Link
Hide and seek with Foxes
tracklist
00:00
/
05:54

Переверните устройство

x: 0px, y: 0px