I found myself reading a lot this past year, picking up books old and new. Juliane Fürst’s Flowers Through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland provided an insight into hippy subcultures of the Soviet Union; Public House: A Cultural and Social History of the London Pub… Read More
Abelian Globalabelian.org Abelian collects round the clock streams of the very low frequency (VLF) radio band. These sounds of ‘natural radio’ are characterised by a series of whistles, crackles and pops, generated by thunderstorms and lightning flashes bouncing off the Earth’s ionosphere. Currently, the site… Read More
Photo: Hippies at their summer camp in Vitrupe, Latvia, 1978 (Photo courtesy Archive G Zaitsev, The Wende Museum, Los Angeles) Ilia Rogatchevski speaks with historian Juliane Fürst about her new history of Soviet hippies and the counterculture of the former USSR. Juliane Fürst is a… Read More
Molchat Doma: (from left) Roman Komogortsev, Egor Shkutko, Pavel KozlovPhoto: Stas Kard The dark synth poetics of Belarusian group Molchat Doma transcend language barriers “Minsk is very much a post-Soviet city, with its gloomy panel highrises. It was in this atmosphere that we thought to… Read More
Various Venues, Moscow, Russia. Photo: Sasha Mademuaselle Moscow Music Week is a festival that celebrates new underground music. It has been described by Russian culture website The Village as Russia’s answer to The Great Escape and SXSW, although it doesn’t yet match the size or… Read More
Ilia Rogatchevski catches up with the Polish quartet’s front man to discuss Gdansk’s tumultuous history, the films of Werner Herzog and the importance of boredom to the creative process Trupa Trupa are an art rock band from Gdansk. Fusing elements of post-hardcore, no wave and… Read More
Daile Music House, Riga, LatviaPhoto: Busdriver by Artūrs Pavlovs. Based at the Daile Music House, a repurposed cinema in Riga’s central district, Skaņu Mežs displays a broad approach to curation. Now in its 16th edition the festival’s most accessible programme yet incorporates everything from contemporary… Read More
Kirill Serebrennikov (Director), Hype Film/Kinovista, 126 minsImage: Aleksander Kuznetsov as The Skeptik in Leto (Summer) “The Soviet rock musician must find the light inside of mankind. He must have an active role in society.” So says the director of the Leningrad Rock Club, Anna Aleksandrovna… Read More
Photo: Teo Yoo as Viktor Tsoi and Roma Zver as Mike Naumenko in Leto (Summer) Russian underground chronicler Artemy Troitsky talks to Ilia Rogatchevski about Leto, Kirill Serebrennikov’s new film documenting the 1980s Soviet rock scene. Artemy Troitsky is a Russian music journalist, cultural critic and… Read More
Ilia Rogatchevski 