Kryptogen Rundfunk – Live 2005

Yay people. This summer strikes me with soooo hot weather, that my brain melts in 5 minutes each time I go outside. I promise myself every year, that I will consider moving to some colder place on the planet Earth, but I always postpone the decision until the better days . So, with that positive vision, today I started to search for something that could possibly cool me down a little bit and nothing can be better in such a case than a glass of cold beer and one piece of refreshing abstract music. As soon as the glass is full , the turn comes to choose CD and by chance I grab a relatively new creation of Moscow based Kryptogen Rundfunk.

Being very active with different split CD's and collaborations, the front man of this project, Artyom, released his last solo album in 2004. So, when he felt that the time had come, he decided to give a light to some live material which was recorded during few stage sessions during 2005. I usually stay very skeptic about such kind of material, because for me live sessions are not only about the music, but also the visual experience . With those mixed feelings I started to listen to this CD and with the first minutes of its run, it turned to be more than expected.

Generally, the atmosphere is based on the usage of different analogue electronic instruments, which were built long ago in Soviet Union, and on radio noises. Two tracks, two different locations, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The sounds that were prepared for those sets are more or less the same and most of the ambiance is created by mixing them. Because of that, there is a feeling of déjà vu sometimes, like I already heard the specific part of the track. But the harmonic feeling that is created during the process, makes me forget about these hitches. The cold music balances on the edge between being noise and dark ambient. The wall of low sound, prepared by radio drones and pulses, slowly creeps into my ears. The vibrating textures filled with sandy uniform hum, transform into sonic landscape . The changes in the overall “melody” are so smooth that sometimes it is difficult to pay attention to them and only after a minute or so I notice that they already happened. While the sound is unexpectedly good, I discover the fact of correcting it in studio after recording. All the material was taken from the festival “Noise vs. Glamour” performances, that brought a lot of delights from the Russian scene.

If you want to open yourself up to new boundaries in radio noise and drone music, you will not be able to do this with this specific album, but still the CD brings the breath of very chilling atmosphere to this hot day of mine and turns it to be something more than just one another day.