VA — In Vacuo (2016)

TL;DR? Then watch a video:

 

Hello, dear fellow travelers! We’re happy to present you our brand new annual sampler! It’s called “In Vacuo”, which means not physical term of an experiment in airless conditions, but a philosophical term as it was originally understood in ancient Rome: an experiment without object.

You see, we’ve been around in Russian web for more than 7 years, remaining obscure and unknown to the majority of listeners, not gaining enough feedback from the efforts we’ve been making; having turned to a broader international audience last year we hoped for more, but we didn’t receive a comment, although I got some encouraging personal messages from readers from the UK, the US, etc., which I cherish a lot.

That’s why I picked name “In Vacuo” for this release: it’s like we’re acting disregarding the listener, the object of creative activity. Some of my peers who probably wanted to make fun of it, wrote me “You guys record it, and then only you listen to it”, and now it’s up to you to prove he was wrong :)

All right, no more lamentations, let’s switch to the sampler. Photos were provided on the courtesy of our long-time collaborator photographer, Pavel Chainichkov, and I thank him for it. The picture for front cover was taken in Moscow, the picture for back cover was taken presumably in Samara, Southern Russia.

Photos by Pavel Chainichkov

The introduction, a track by our new member; it's a neoclassical improvisation «Лидер не имеет права на безрассудство» (“The Leader Has No Right to Be Reckless”), of the project called «Наброски Арни» (“Arnie’s Sketches”), mixed by me. Actually, I suggested more radical remix, but the author rejected it by some unclear reason, and this mix is sort of compromise. Anyway, I find neoclassical style important in outsider music of Russia. We've already included neoclassical stuff by another project in our sampler "Music for Homebodies" (2013) which I'll review one fine day, and this sampler surely represents the direct evolution of our community.

Second song is my remix of Пророк СанБой’s nice pop song “Rainbow”, recorded in 1996, remixed in 2016. Our collaboration continued until this but I remain uncertain about its perspectives. The music video was filmed for the original version, but I changed the soundtrack by request of the artist.

Track 3 is a comeback of Acid Socks, awesome electronic track “Still a Factory”, a part of which was used in our promo video in 2015. Again I presented lyrics and chant, while Acid Socks wrote music. I want to believe Acid Socks will be revived for a solo release. This is the first appearance of Acid Socks on a music release since 2013, too.

Track 4 is a new composition by Snowbringer; still "brightest" ambient ever possible, dedicated to the famous ambient composer. Snowbringer released another "magnum opus" lasting about 2.5 hours just a few days ago, but we, Concern Void Records, anyway hope to release a split with Snowbringer this summer, so maybe there’ll be this track, too :)

Then goes the comeback of Man With a Dictaphone who also appears at our releases first time since 2013. I really like their instrumental electronic track “87+3”, filled with positive energy. Man With a Dictaphone has a lot of awesome unreleased stuff I wish to see released.

An interlude sound collage “Tonic Seizure”, edited for the sampler, is actually the evolution of “Nervoese Leute” project, which I renamed for “Insane Cassette” as I’ve been running it alone. I guess I'm gonna rename it again :)

It’s an analogue tape collage in a venue of Negativland, probably Culturcide, including cut-ups and mixes or Russian analogue radio stations from 2000's. I believe a long-play (or a split release) by “Insane Cassette” will follow. It’s published under Creative Commons license; if you own any samples used in a collage, please contact me, and it will be removed from the track.

Track 7 is a new dark ambient composition by Hipstor Smith, it’s important as it catches his mood, his state of mind during writing, I guess, overall weary state, so peculiar for spring.

Final track is by Лосины Маршала Потемкина, they tend to change the direction, releasing electronic stuff. The song «Нудный» (“Boring”) tells a story of a dull life of a dull man: I’m boring; it’s hard to deal with me.

It's also the very first music video we ever filmed, hope you enjoy it :)

The sampler can be downloaded for free (mp3, direct download)

Please leave some feedback, it’s much appreciated!

Your sincerely,

John “Grey Lenses” Grey