AN UNSCHEDULED CONGRESS OF THE NO WAVE! ROCK CLUB

No Wave! build their mix around a video chronicle that documents the life of unofficial art and the musical underground of the late USSR: the band Kino is followed by the New Artists, a performance by Dmitri Prigov is picked up by Georgy Guryanov with a solo on drums, and all of this develops into a total celebration of rock music in a Soviet house of culture.

«During perestroika and in the 1990s, photographer Sergey Borisov did a lot of filming with a handheld video camera. Today, the result looks like classic home video: 4:3 format, rejuvenating imagery, tolerable sound (if something loud happens or the camera is near the sound source). The footage features musicians, artists, and poets from a close circle (all of them became famous) spending their time having fun. The chronicle is filmed in the same dashing style.

Borisov liked recording concerts, which he recorded on multiple tapes. Back then, any performance was an uncomfortable undertaking with an unpredictable result for unofficial musicians. Each time there was a struggle for working instruments, and the musicians’ own strangeness, and a collective sense of normality. The rock club was a movement that took over the seated auditoria of houses of culture. What sounded in these rooms between songs resonated with the moment as much as, say, the lyrics of the band Televizor. Borisov did not stop recording even when there were shouts, obscene quatrains, and the protracted comments of music critics.

Our mix is a recording of an evening in a total rock club: the key bands of the time sing their hits, everything sounds rough, the guitar tone is sandy, and people are packed like sardines. As the bands replace each other, the fans chant something from the seats and climb onto the stage, their words pretty distinct. We can’t help feeling that we have heard all this somewhere before.»

No Wave! worked with the Sergey Borisov archive.

Cover: Concert by the group Nautilus Pompilius in Khimki, 1988. Video still. Video: Sergey Borisov. Garage Archive Collection (Sergey Borisov archive)

BIO

No Wave! is a project by musician Ildar Iksanov that explores alternative culture. It is nostalgic and exists between disciplines—as a record label, clothing brand, and lifestyle.