SOVIET VIR RAVE

‍Raumtester’s vir rave utopia is a homage to Pirate TV, an experimental video project launched in the late 1980s by St. Petersburg artists from the circle of Timur Novikov.

«"Oh shit!" was the phrase that constantly revolved in my head while watching Pirate TV, as what I saw was so ahead of its time and so progressive. The most avant-garde music of those years, including trance, progressive house, techno, could be heard in Pirate TV’s various reports, and all this in the Soviet Union.

The visual imagery of the program, its soundtrack, and the appearance on the screen of presenter Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe took me to some kind of imaginary vir techno rave. That is why I carefully studied the electronic dance music of late perestroika and the early 1990s and recorded a mix of tracks by Soviet and Russian musicians who were into the new sound—pulsating, danceable, and liberated—as well as tracks by foreign producers that may have influenced this sound. The track that ties the mix together is Pink Floyd’s On the Run, a time machine connecting the vir rave utopia with the last track, which I wrote. I wanted to show how the experience of predecessors can be rethought in a new reality. I also used audio fragments of Pirate TV programs and mixed the tracks roughly to create a feeling of watching TV while listening, like when you switch channels in anticipation of what will happen next.

We sometimes underestimate the importance of culture in political change. I think that the revolution was made not by politicians but by that culture, including music, which changed the direction of society’s thinking. The question remains as to whether our contemporary culture is capable of changing something.»

Raumtester worked with the Nina Zaretskaya (TV Gallery) archive.

Cover: Pirate Television, early 1990s. Video still. Garage Archive Collection (Nina Zaretskaya / TV Gallery archive)

BIO

Raumtester is a DJ and musician, resident of the promo project Popoff Kitchen, and organizer of the «vir mir» queer parties. He has performed in Russia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Ukraine, France, and other countries. Raumtester’s multi-genre mixes have been released by Boiler Room, HÖR, Crack Magazine, and Rinse.

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