Russia by YourEye

"Russia" is based on field recordings from the artist’s trip to Moscow, St. Petersburg and their surroundings in the summer of 2007. The trip was documented in the form of ephemeral poetic memories. The titles are derived from sonic flashbacks. Inspired by acts such as Matmos, Chris Clark, Aphex Twin, Autechre and Squarepusher, YourEye’s music fuses elements of experimental and popular music practices. Its rough and emotional mojo reaches to the realms of ecological sound practitioners such as R. Murray Schafer and Francisco Lopez. Not surprisingly, the Moscow Market track became a finalist in the European Sound Panorama 2011 music contest, which focused on the creative portrayal of European soundscapes. The character of the album arises from working with rough and often unedited materials, embracing clicks, pops, squeaks and noises. Similar to the process of discovering new places, this music is impregnated with bewilderment and surprise. Each track presents a particular place as heard through the aesthetic ears of a particular genre, form and timbral focus.

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The Russian Diary:
Late summer 2007
Airbus A319: from Prague to Moscow
sleepless talk: just among friends

Day 1: Moscow
the shock of a pen-friend memories
you'll never forget cyrillic
Red Square, Kremlin, Arbat Street
Ghzelka vodka and crepes
Bolshoi Theater and Kitay Gorod
street music, clowns and painted cows
fumey jungle
magnificent

Day 2: Express train to St. Petersburg
high on pierogi and made up games
watered down with we-have-arrived Percovka
mosquito insomnia and sunrise at the Neva river
quietly burbing in soft light
meat soup and toast at 6AM

Day 3: On the canals, in the boat
Winter Palace, the Admiralty tower
Cathedral of St. Isaac
bright and gold
talking, chewing
unfiltered papirosa cigarettes
Belomorkanal
someone snoring
vodka & green tea concotion

Day 4: The racket boat to Petrodvorets: torpedo roaring
Senaya Ploshad & street party with lost Ahasvers
Guinness bar where herrings are the omnipresent little business

Day 5: Smolniy Cloister and Palace
Kolokol
Colossal and empty: Hermitage
green seaweed wikipedia
Dostoyevski's home: Sonyas and Netochkas
hidden behind the white curtains
back to Moscow: savoring pelmeni

Day 6: Sergiyev Posad and Chapel of St. Sergey
Chanted, recited, illuminated: prayers
Back on train with babushka swifting to Ural
"What did you get? Was it good?"
Our stop: Abramtsevo artist colony: bribe the guard to see the art
Zelenaja Marka at the train-station
Singing lady & stripper pole dance to the rhythms of the trance train
Ermak vodka ad hoc
Return to Moscow: Metro is a conglomerate meduza
boiling deaf with announcements
Georgian Restaurant: spice and cream

Day 7: Saturday Market: saturation of sound
music boxes and four Katyusha singers: a passionate and out of tune
all timbres: embroidered skirts, blouses and pointed hats
7 Bjork albums on 1 CD for $5: that's a steal
Georgian pottery, Caucassan carpets, Matryoshkas, young pickpockets, chess,
hand-made puppets, paintings, tiles and antique clocks
meat made in a steel pan

(evening Flegman vodka with the mourning mountain climbers)

Day 8: Suzdal: on the bench under a white birch
choir and kolokol
Bogolyubovo's pond full of screaming swimmers
in the woods in hot rustling leaves
distant bells and unrest crows
Yuryev-Polski: St. George church from pre-Mongol era
Apples, horses, clay jars with honey and accordion street music

Pereslavl Zalessky
borsc with Tana & Masha: girls for travel
need so little: need a passport
late evening swim in the shallow lake

Day 9: The river with ancient willows,
dripping clothes hanging on the trees
golden light and charred cloister roof

Volga river winding down the history: Yaroslavl
walking zone at Elias Nevsky
Rostov: Spaso-Yakovlevsky monastery
larger than largest: viewed from the boat

back in Moscow: white wine and white fish

Day 10: Metro to Sparrow Hills: Lomonosov University
Luzhniki Olympic Complex: Summer 1980
Novodevichy Cemetery: Gogol, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Shaljapin and Yelcin
for the tourists
"Go and swim in the Moscow river if you came here to see Shaljapin!"
yelled a babushka watering a grave of an unknown-to-us Bolshoi Theater artist
VDNKh: the pride of the Soviet technology and culture: Past and past
Babushkas with an Hugo Boss bags

Diner at Yelky-Palky: fast as fast
Standard and tears

Day 11: Cathedral of Christ the Saviour: Hagia Sophia of Moscow
Memorial to Peter the Great: flamboyant and on the ship
Little Russian Debbie: legendary Alyonka chocolate factory
back to Arbat- borsc and vodka
Street noise, street pop
Melnikov house: avatgarde visionary architect
GUM state department store: New York shopping with New York prices
P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory: Theremin Center with Andrey Smirnov
Investigating the prototypes of theremin and Scriabin instruments
pre-WWII electronic music future

Day 12:
On plane to Prague: satiated and exhausted

Tracklist

1.	On Train with Babushka	2:06

2.	The Moscow Market	5:02

3.	Kolokol	4:36

4.	Chanting	4:00

5.	Train Announcement	1:33

6.	Katyusha Singers	5:16

7.	The Music Box	3:30

8.	Accordion Music	2:46

9.	Train Trance	5:00

10.	Choir	4:07

11.	Street Pop Remix	3:48

12.	Crows	1:01

Credits

released February 11, 2012

Composed and mixed by YourEye. Master by Thomas Dimuzio at Gench Studios, www.gench.com. Recorded between July 22 and August 1, 2007 in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the surrounding areas.

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