An occasional radio show exploring the artistic practices of the (post)Soviet underground.
Each Station Radio episode is an audio work created by independent musicians and communities based on materials in Garage Archive Collection. Looking at the history of nonconformism and the musical underground, such as Siberian noise and electronics, Krasnodar poetry performance, the chronicles of the Leningrad Rock Club or the archives of Pirate TV, the authors explore the countercultural practices of the (post)Soviet era and reconstruct little-known episodes.
The project is part of Garage Archive Commissions, where artists create new works based on materials in Garage Archive Collection.
© Музей современного искусства «Гараж» 2022
by Method ZeroFish on the window, rhythms of daily routine, and the sound of a half-peeled lemon in a mix project for the lonely person.
I have always been inspired by the paintings, schemes, texts, and projects of Viktor Pivovarov. For some tracks on the album DOMA I cheekily made use of the rhythm of words from the titles of his paintings or texts found in his works. The composition “cycle of” (it’s in the mix) is about Project for a Lonely Man, about the kind rhythm of the day, everyday rituals, a routine that does not absorb energy but provides more of it. Before there was unexpectedness and spontaneity in my life, but as I’ve become older (or more experienced) I’ve begun to love routine. This mix is for those who love to be alone, groundhog day, and Viktor Pivovarov.
Olya Maksimova (OMMA)
Olya Maksimova (OMMA)is a producer, electronic musician, and DJ. She graduated from the Bill Evans Piano Academy[RA1] (Paris). She is the co-founder of the interactive sound studio Can Touch This Studio and a participant in Playtronica, a laboratory of creative technologies based on sound and touch. She has released three albums on the labels Antinote and Coastal Haze. She created the sound design for Playtronica installations in France and Russia. In October 2022, OMMA was a resident at OneBeat (USA), where she composed music and performed with Bianca Casady from CocoRosie.
Olya Maksimova worked with the Viktor Pivovarov archive.
Excerpt from the video Viktor Pivovarov Reads His Book (2002)
Dai Sez i AEM Ritm-Kaskad — Reverse Shot
Excerpt from the video Viktor Pivovarov Reads His Book (2002)
OMMA — Breakfast
OMMA — Routine
Novye kompozitory — from space to space
Zodiac — The other Side of the Sky
Excerpt from the video Viktor Pivovarov on Moscow (2002)
VisibleCloaks — Screen
InoyamaLand — Pokala
Gary Numan — Trois GymnopédiesNo. 1
AppleStar — Inoyama Land
Excerptfrom the the video Viktor Pivovarov Reads His Book (2002)
OMMA — cycle of (Routine 2)
Arnold Petrosov — Faceless Flow of Time
NII Kosmetiki –Noisy City
Excerptfrom the the video Viktor Pivovarov Reads His Book (2002)
OMMA – +/- Skin of the Conductor
RaymondScott — In the Hall of the Mountain Queen
Excerptfrom the the video Viktor Pivovarov Films in Prague (2002)
RaymondScott — Lightworks (Instrumental)
VIO-66, Yuri Saulsky — Day by Day
Excerpt from the video Viktor Pivovarov on Moscow (2002)
NV — Pum-Pum (Lax Dub) 140 tempo
Excerptfrom the the video Viktor Pivovarov Reads His Book (2002)
JessTwang — Sound shadows
EmilyA. Sprague — Huckleberry
VisibleCloaks — Wintergreen
Pluspetit que trois — Elle dort
Excerpt from the video Viktor Pivovarov on Moscow (2002)
Mayak — 5 a.m.
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method ZeroThis mix by the group krai explores underground recordings of the late-Soviet period, a time of flourishing musical samizdat when albums were recorded from record player to record player.
We created a mix from record player albums of the 1980s, a nostalgic homage to a time before ours which from today’s perspective does not seem to be so unimaginable.
The term “controlled burn” means a managed fire that helps a forest to grow. Today we are a forest that is enclosed on all sides so that the controlled fire does not become a catastrophe. But there are always risks for those who try to control nature.
krai
krai is an informal grouping from Bryansk, which once had certain aims but has long since lost direction and now develops chaotically. The group includes artists, musicians, and other no less interesting characters.
krai worked with the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art archive.
Yuri Morozov — Inexplicable 4
Neoretro — New Outcome
Stereozoldat — Yevpatoria
DK — Wind of Change
Bad Boys — Komsomol Members
Bratya po razumu — Boys from the Year 2000
Zona aktivnosti — Information from the Newspapers
Kofe — Monument
Monument — Superfluous Words
NII Kosmetiki — I Believe
ABTs E — Why I lost Weight
Bad Boys — Grab Your Life
Televizor — Far East
Zona aktivnosti — No, No, No
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method ZeroSupermen and ichthyanders, chases,podium shows, and other unusual characters and events in a musical compilationby Tesnota Bureau dedicated to the schizo-heroic reality of the Urals.
The Round the Clock Sverdlovsk mix is a setof compositions by Urals groups and performers of various ages combined withexcerpts from the idiotically legendary Urals Television Agency, which specializedin crime reporting about Yekaterinburg. Reports about other events in the cityalso made it to the screen (for example, about culture and art) and they werepresented in an ironic style that is difficult to describe. As well as shortnews reports, the agency produced full-length films, including about AlexanderGalizdrin’s action Ichthyander’s Wedding and the happening FallCabrioflight, which we simply had to include in this mix.
Welcome to Round the Clock Sverdlovsk!
Tesnota Bureau
Tesnota Bureau organizes cultural and entertainment events. It was founded bySasha Elsakov and Slavo Dushin, co-owners of the bar Samotsvet (Yekaterinburg).
The mix was recorded with the support of themedia outlet Uralskie franki, which covers the noughties inYekaterinburg, Russia, and the world. The authors of the project are thejournalists and researchers Aleksei Shakhov and Mikhail Verbitsky.
Tesnota Bureau worked with the Yeltsin Center archive.
Intro
Trek – Honest Lad
Excerpt from the report ‘Car Chase JunkiesCrash into Tram,’ Urals Television Agency
Disse –My Flight
Excerpt from the report ‘Monumentalaz,’Urals Television Agency
Pismo Konyu – He Left Long Ago
Excerpt from the report ‘Attack on a GypsyCamp,’ Urals Television Agency
Kabinet – Talisman
Excerpt from the report ‘Ivan-Toad,’ UralsTelevision Agency
Akropolis – Warrior in the Night
Excerpt from the report ‘“Manneken-Pis” Hitby Car,’ Urals Television Agency
Aprelsky Marsh – Militia
Excerpt from the report ‘Three LittlePigs,’ Urals Television Agency
Olga Lebedeva – Be Everyone’s Baby
Excerpt from the report ‘Ways to Die,’Urals Television Agency
4 Pozitsii Bruno – She Was on the Way Home
Excerpt from the report ‘FlyingAutomobile,’ Urals Television Agency
Elektrichesky Gorod – I’m a Computer
Excerpt from the report ‘Models Walked inDaubed Panties,’ Urals Television Agency
Ptsitsa Zu – She Has a Butt Inside
Excerpt from the report ‘Ichthyander’sWedding,’ Urals Television Agency
Rezinovy dedushka – Sex Maniac
Excerpt from the report ‘Ichthyander’sWedding,’ Urals Television Agency
Excerpt from the report ‘FlyingAutomobile,’ Urals Television Agency
Katya Ionder – Again and Again
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method ZeroSoft Blade’s mix brings together tracks from cult films and games about graffiti and street art with Russian hip hop of the 1990s and 2000s.
I chose tracks that can call up associations with graffiti even among people who know little about the subculture, for instance from the soundtrack of the cult street art film Exit Through the Gift Shop or music from the popular game about graffiti Getting Up, and also tracks that I associate with the atmosphere of hip culture in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s. I included excerpts from the popular (within a narrow circle) podcast G-Spot, guests of which had a major influence on the development of graffiti in Russia.
Soft Blade
Soft Blade is an experimental audio-visual project by Violetta S. in which she searches for herself, truth, beauty, and unexpected meetings along the way. Sof Blade’s multi-genre compositions are inspired by Russian-language folk music and British electronica. She has performed at the Signal and Fields festivals and sung in church choirs in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Sof Blade worked with the street art archive.
G-Spot podcast 07 — Pasha 183
Del the Funky Homosapien — Mistadobalina
Big L — Put It On
Mos Def — Auditorium (feat. Slick Rick)
Raby Lampy — It Doesn’t Hurt / Born 2 Lose (feat. Buckshotz & Primo)
Bad Balance – First Graffiti
Raby Lampy — No Hope Ahead
The Creators — Kronkite (feat. Phill da Agony)
KOVSH — Eternity
Headshots: Snek — Graffiti
KOVSH — Take the Field / Bad Balance — Graffiti
Bad Balance — Города
Mobb Deep — Shook Ones (Part 2)
Ice Cube — It was a Good Day
Mobb Deep — Survival of the Fittest
KRS One feat. El Da Sensei — Wholetrain
Ligalaiz — Stress
M. S. — The Matrix Clubbed to Death
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony — Mo’murda
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method ZeroThe audio essay by the DIG Store team is a melancholic soundscape inspired by the artistic journey of photographer Lyalya Kuznetsova.
This collage is an imaginary soundtrack to the life of Lyalya Kuznetsova, composed of episodes from her biography, experiences, and events. There is no linearity or chronology. It is more like a diary, the pages of which were stuck together in random order. The authors used audio fragments from films and interviews with Kuznetsova, some of them transformed or looped, leading to the appearance of new sounds and patterns.
DIG Store
DIG Store is one of Moscow’s most famous record stores, popular with both professional DJs and music lovers. Founders Petr Valkov, Grisha Eniosov, and Ivan Smekalin create a community around their business: they organize concerts, parties, and listening events, aiming to share their favorite music in every way.
The DIG Store team worked with Lyalya Kuznetsova's archive.
Excerpts from the film Life Will Be a Photograph (2009)
Excerpts from the film Unique Look (1987)
Field recordings from the archive of Ivan Smekalin
Excerpts from the film Magauiya Khamzin (2000)
Yunus Rajabiy – Kuygay
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method ZeroA swooning mix of Russian electronic music of the 1990s and weird audio fragments from TV of the period.
Distorted reality, myth-making, total blackout, and a ton of nonobvious inspiration: it seems to me that this is what the Russian 1990s really were. It is an era that is talked about so much but known by so few. Every conversation about that decade is an attempt to grasp its immensity, and every glance at it is just another path in the labyrinth of images and legends.
In this mix, the listener is presented with a crime drama unfolding against the backdrop of a rapidly developing electronic music scene and an inexorably declining economy. The mix is inspired by the archive of St. Petersburg DJ Lena Popova, which is kept in a secluded corner of Garage Archive Collection.
Evgeny Gorbunov
Evgeny Gorbunov is a musician, producer, and artist. He is one of the most active members of the Moscow independent music scene, the author of the project Intourist, guitarist co-founder of the band ГШ, and bassist of the live version of the project Kate NV. He also founded and was a member of the band NRKTK and the electronic projects Stoned Boys and Interchain.
Evgeny Gorbunov worked with the Lena Popova archive.
Samtsy Dronta – Fish Hunt (1991)
Excerpts from the feature film Mytar (1997)
Excerpts from the feature film The Mafia is Immortal (1993)
Techno Dance Club – Sampler (1996)
Excerpt from a report about the INC Station rave (Up to 16 and Older, TV program, 1997)
Excerpts from the feature film Genius (1991)
Excerpts from the feature film Risk Without A Contract (1992)
Zima – Winter is Coming Home (1995)
Esclavos Del Futuro – Keep Your Tempo! (1994)
Excerpt from a report about the Star Parade rave (Tower, TV program, 1999)
Krasivaya Prishla – I, You, My Reptile (1990)
Excerpts from the feature film American Boy (1992)
Telepaty – Minimalism (1996)
Excerpt from the report “Hardcore vs Jungle” (Tower, TV program, 1999)
Starshie – Who am I? (1994)
Alt F4 – Popol Wuj (1996)
Arrival – Preambula-2 (1994)
Excerpts from a report about the Love Parade festival (MTV Dance Floor, TV program, 1999)
The Eyes in Acid – Baby & Fantasy (1993)
The Нет – Crystal World (1994)
Excerpt from the TV program This is Moscow (1998)
Stantsiya Solaris – White Dance (1997)
Vtoraya Afrikanskaya Okhota – CHHO (1996)
Rя/Бa Mutantъ – RaBa in Dub (1999)
Excerpt from a report about trance music (Tower, TV program, 1999)
Excerpt from the TV program Up to 16 and Older (1994)
DJ Compass Vrubell – Toilet Captain (1999)
3 in a House – My Body is Moving (1996)
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method ZeroNo 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!
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.
No Wave! worked with the Sergey Borisov archive.
Voice of music critic Ilya Smirnov
Nautilus Pompilius – Striptease
Excerpt from a concert by Kino at the Palace of Culture of Communications, Leningrad (1989)
Igry – Nothing Dear
Excerpt from documentation of the Anti-Drug Evening at the Medical House, Moscow (1987)
Zvuki Mu – Pigeon
Durnoe Vliyanie – Immobility
Kino – Passer-by
Excerpt from documentation of a punk festival at Bykovo cinema, Moscow Region (1988)
Dialogue between Boris Grebenschikov and David Letterman
Doktor – Buy My Sighs
Excerpt from a concert by Komitet Okhrany Tepla, St. Petersburg (1997)
Vezhlivy Otkaz – Liturgical Dream
Monologue by poet and artist Dmitri Prigov
Excerpt from the song “Dump” by Tupye
Georgy Guryanov – Drum Solo in Techno Style
Komitet Okhrany Tepla – Africa
Akvarium – Captain Africa
Voice of music critic Ilya Smirnov
Televizor – To Get Out of Control
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method ZeroThe story of the Kuban musical underground, compiled by Radio Fantasia from archive recordings connecting several generations of music enthusiasts.
When you hear “Soviet underground music scene” you think of Moscow and Leningrad and maybe Siberia. What role does Krasnodar play in that list?
In the private archives of DIY zines and magazines about the rock scene you can find evidence of opposition to Soviet censorship. In the city there were underground clubs and gatherings and concerts and performative actions.
We have created a mix from archive recordings of Krasnodar music from the 1970s through the 1990s. It is constructed around a story by artist Mikhail Smaglyuk about music enthusiasts who from the early 1960s would meet at the “clearing” to swap vinyl. It traces the history of the underground of Krasnodar krai right up to the 1990s.
According to Vladimir Elistratov’s dictionary of Russian slang, kreza (crazies) are enthusiasts, fans, and abnormal people. They are not yet included in the history of underground Soviet and post-Soviet music, and we are glad to make a start by presenting this survey mix that sounds like a cassette recording from your parents’ shelf: music, conversations, and excerpts from programs seem to be recorded over tracks you got sick of.
Radio Fantasia
The genre-free community Radio Fantasia is a platform created by staff of the Typography Center for Contemporary Art and friends of the Center for open discussion of pressing problems of social and political systems. The radio station is an archive of materials gathered by artists, curators and journalists, theorists, sound researchers, and poets.
On May 7, 2022, Typography Center for Contemporary Art was designated a foreign agent by order of Roskomnadzor.
Radio Fantasia worked with the Typography Center for Contemporary Art archive.
Recording of a conversation with Mikhail Smaglyuk
Excerpt from the TV program KREZA
Chernobog — Grave for the Universe
SKANDAL! — Naive People
Excerpt from the VHS release Five Years of Mental Dissection by the group Mental Dissection
Excerpt from a performance by the group Transmutator at the Fermata Festival (Krasnodar, 1992)
Fucker — Mental Robery
Excerpt from an interview with the group PEREVAL
PEREVAL — Black Sunset
UNDERWATER — Jackals on the Streets
Spiritus Aedes — Betrayal
Libido — Scream It
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method ZeroThe mix by Margenrot (a project by Lusia Kazaryan-Topchyan) is built around the “wrong” music of industrial Omsk. Lusia's first musical experiments explored the Siberian experimental electronic scene of the 2000s. Margenrot finds unusual combinations in which lo-fi field recordings feature alongside noise improvisations and dark ambient with digital hardcore.
In the 2000s, everyone on the Omsk experimental electronic scene was looking for their own unique language, boldly mixing genres. I like this kind of vibe, when everyone does their own thing without looking back at colleagues. So, I have lovingly collected the musical pearls of the electronic scene of the city into this mix.
The Omsk underground was influenced in one way or another by the bands Grazhdanskaya Oborona and Kommunizm, including all of their side projects, and by brothers Evgeny and Oleg Lishchenko’s rock band Pik Klakson. In the early 2000s, the scene was dominated by guitar music. The legendary Mikhail Kolesnik (PyleSOS, Samantha Smith, Venerar) was responsible for “Tar” grindcore and noise metalcore, Dmitry Krab and Simon (Energiya) made spatial dark ambient. Artist Anton Gudkov explored noise improvization and collage techniques (U, prop dept). His works—collages imbued with the atmosphere of industrial Omsk, composed of the “trash of the past”—are now held in Garage Archive Collection.
With the advent of computers and the Internet in the mid-2000s, the electronic scene began to take shape, giving birth to a strong community of young musicians and sound producers toward the end of the decade. The electronic experiments of James Alexander Darkforce were notable for their idiosyncratic, surreal texts. In parallel with the noise scene, Andrei Mitroshin created his own lo-fi island. His method of writing music is marked by a unique analogue tape sound: “I recorded on my cassette portastudio using Soviet synthesizers and ran the music through tape dictaphones and our family Japanese Panasonic radio tape recorder from the 1980s.” He was not afraid of the classic way of working in Fruity Loops, believing that the means are secondary, the main thingis the result. Mitroshin's label Dopefish Family released Silver Boy, a detachment of post-irony and absurdity from prokin, Michanika, Myachina, romantic synth-pop Modulya, and, of course, Andrei’s own multiple projects: Milky Toad, Arm Author, later Kenneth Anger (with participation from Karina Kazaryan’s and me), Prodavtsy-Konsultanty, Biznesmen.
My group RX also experimented with genres: our music was reminiscent of Sonic Youth with broken rhythms. Later, together with Nikolai Rudik, we launched the electronic digital hardcore project Meatbeat featuring screaming vocals à la Atari Teenage Riot and managed to record a couple of tracks (one of which I included in the mix). In 2010, I moved to Moscow to keep making “wrong” music.
Margenrot
Lusia Kazaryan-Topchyan is a composer and sound producer. While studying costume design at Omsk State Institute of Service, she was experimenting with music. She is the founder of the band PX, the electronic project Meatbeat (together with Nikolai Rudik), and her solo project spinetv. After moving to Moscow in 2010 with her sister Karina Kazaryan and Diana Burkot, she founded the female experimental noise-rock band Fanny Kaplan. In the same year, with the participation of Karina Kazaryan and Andrei Mitroshin (Dopefish Family), the lo-fi shoegaze group Kenneth Anger was formed. In 2017, after the collapse of Fanny Kaplan, she launched her solo project, Margenrot. Margenrot’s discography includes two LPs (Zangezur and Obkhod) released on the Klammklang label. She has participated in Donaufestival, Urvakan Festival, Schwetfest, and Contra Pop Festival.
Margenrot worked with the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art archive.
fonkonz — dope mixdown 6 rx4 aex
Tubfuck — Terry
James Alexander Darkforce — Desert Queen in ChemicalDreams
old oldman — the tender ass
spinet — tadic
Exilis — Pacman Become Violent Madman
energiya* — rivto2 A=c
PyleSOS — To Each Other (ex-Mushroom_doc)
b.m. — živá příroda
Milky Toad — youth gone wild 6
b.m. — transsiberia fantastica VII
zah — N
b.m. — živá příroda
PyleSOS — chukotskoe radio (Mushroom doc post-noise mix)
darkcontrol — expectation
Venerar — I Had an Anime Girl (dotman as morzhmorzh cover)
meatbeat — The Dog & The Tapeworm
ARM Author — 白雪公主,运营商 拉普拉斯算子,并在世界上最大的果酱
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022
by Method Zero