Your father, Edward Artemiev, is a famous electronic musician & soundtrack composer. As a child, do you remember music always being played? What are your memories (if any)? What influence has his music been on yours? Does he give you tips or suggestions about composing?


Of course when You live in the family of musicians (my mother is a professional pianist) You could hear music in the house all day long & sooner or later You begin not only playing music but also composing it. I consider my father to be my first teacher of electronic & film music and of course his music influenced on my activity. He is considered to be a pioneer of electronic music in this country. He began composing electronic music in early 60s on the first Russian synthesiser «ANS». «ANS» is an instrument with which a composer can not only create but even draw his music without notes & orchestra. A Russian scientist Evgeni Murzin spent about 20 years (1937-1957) to create this apparatus which can join together three processes: music creation, recording and performing. All these processes are rather complicated. You can see twinkling of different lamps, rotation of figured discs made of glass. Notes are cut on glass disc covered with special layer. The drawings on the glass are «sounding notes». To listen to the drawn picture you should press the button and a wonderful transformation will begin. The engraving will transfer into music. The «ANS» octave consists of 72 elements the whole treasure of sounds. E. Murzin dedicated his apparatus to the well-known Russian composer Aleksander Nikolaevitch Scriabin, thats why he called it «ANS». A. N. Scriabin, the creator of the «Poem Of Ecstasy», used in his works a highly chromatic new type of harmonic style designed to express his beliefs, views & wishes. «ANS» was used by my father for creating soundtracks for such films as «Mirror» & «Solyaris» (A. Tarkovskiy), «Siberiade» (A. Kontchalovskiy). This instrument was located in the Moscow Experimental Studio of Electronic Music (1968-1980) & since 1972 I spent a lot of time in this studio. There I listened to the music of such groups & composers as «King Crimson», «Genesis», «Yes», Klaus Schulze, «Tangerine Dream», played on «ANS», «Synthi-100», attended rehearsals of my fathers group «Boomerang». I saw how my father worked with instruments, people & I tried to understand the process of creating electronic music. For me it was magic. And my father was a magician - surrounded by various apparatuses, synthesisers, lamps, etc. who was making all these machines to sound. He never gave me any tips or suggestions how to compose music if I dont show him my compositions & wont ask for an advice myself. Only then hell tell me how (to his opinion) my composition should sound. He said that its the authors business how to compose music & if somebody interfere in the process with the advise then inspiration will fly away. You could ask for an advise only after You completed Your work.


What was it like in pre-democratic Russia for electronic musicians? My sense is that it was discouraged & recordings not generally available. Did everything changed after 1990 or so?


From one hand it was it was very difficult for the artists in pre-democratic Russia - censorship, KGB, police, jail, no freedom at all but from the other hand only then artist could create real masterships as there were no commercials, dull TV-programs, etc. People wrote interesting serious books, shot interesting films, played & composed interesting music. Now You have freedom but no interesting books, films, music. I mean of course there are some but not as many as it was in the period from 1970 till 1985. Now situation with the music in the world is extremely dangerous. As for the modern popular music that comes out from every discotec & night-club then I can say that I only dont want it to be aggressive, de-constructive & so faceless as its now. I also want to say some words about music scene in Russia & the Western countries. Now theres no difference between music scenes in Russia & the Western countries. Heres popular what is popular on the West - trance, hip-hop, rave, rap - in other words dancing styles of music. And mass-medias promote only such kind of music. It seems that the world went crazy. As for serious modern music then I must say that situation with electronic, electroacoustic, contemporary, experimental & avant-garde music is very specific. People are interested in the above-mentioned genres of music. I can say so because of their positive reaction on my monthly lectures, radio & TV program on Moscow cable television (both programs are very episodic yet. Its because of I show non-commercial serious music). But they complain that its practically impossible to get music of this kind in this country. Really, its very difficult to find CDs of Alejandro Vinao or Francis Dhomont, or Pierre Schaeffer for example. Right now «Electroshock» is working on the question of opening a special CD store where well be distributing, selling & promote only electronic, electroacoustic, experimental & avant-garde music. If everything is OK then well open this particular CD somewhere at the end of autumn01. As for various events devoted to the above-mentioned non-commercial genres of music in Moscow then I can say that once in three months Russian Association for Electroacoustic music runs concerts of serious electronic, electroacoustic, experimental & avant-garde (EEE&A) music. Also we have «ALTERNATIVA» festival devoted to EEE&A music & besides that many interesting composers & musicians often visit Moscow with their concerts & performances. And You know many people (by the way many young ones) attend these events. Theyre sick & tired of techno, pop, rap, hip-hop & other pieces of commercial shit. Really I met those people in Russia, Sweden, Finland, USA, France, Great Britain & spoke with them. Theyre very interested in listening & buying electroacoustic, electronic, experimental & avant-garde music. Now the cultural situation in the world is very sad (our countries are not the exception). Nobody wants to read serious books, watch serious films, to listen to serious music. The motto of young generation is «switch on rap & Ill cry». Yes! They call rap or techno «the highest level of art» & we can see tears of joy on their faces while they listen to 120 beat per minute. When we ask them who is Michaelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci - they say «Oh! I know! These are the names of the famous turtles, mutant heroes». My God! It scares! And Youre speaking about the development. Development of what? Degradation? I think so. What is going on with our poor planet, You know? I dont know.


Your CDs are beautifully made & of the highest quality. Is it possible to easily get this type of quality in Your country?


Thank You very much for Your compliment. Unfortunately now its impossible to easily get perfect quality in this country. So we manufacture all our production in Sweden & many people think & say that Electroshock Records is a Sweden label. I dont know how to react on this words. Im Russian but all my CD-business in Sweden. So I dont know now. Maybe its Russian label, maybe its Swedish label or joint-venture - it doesnt matter. But I hope that sooner or later Russia will manage to produce CDs of perfect quality.


Tel us about some of your favorite influences, music or otherwise


As for the music that I like then I can say thatI like classic, contemporary & electroacoustic music, especially electroacoustic. I think that this particular genre of music is more interesting (personally for me) because it combines classical form & leaves more space for experimenting with sound, samplers, acoustic instruments, noises & computers. «Through the noise comes the sound & through the sound comes the music» - these are not my words, these words belong to one of the greatest composers of concrete music - PIERRE SCHAEFFER who began his experiments with sound in 1948. These are the composers who influenced on my music & whom I continue to listen to - Edward Artemiev, Gyorgy Ligety, Edgar Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbit, Brian Eno, Pierre Bouleze, Francis Dhomond, Ennio Marricone, John Williams, John Cage, Jerry Goldsmith, Pierre Henry, Alejandro Vinao, Earle Brown, Herbert Eimert, York Holler, Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Reigh, Henri Pousseur, Klaus Schulze, Pierre Schaeffer, Graham Bowers, Steve Roach, Luigi Nono, Harold Budd, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Gordon Mumma, Vangelis, also I like such groups as «King Crimson», «UK», «The Who», «Yes», «Genesis», «Pink Floyd», «Rolling Stones», jazz-composers & musicians - Bob James, Terje Rypdail, Herbie Hancock, Chick Korea, Jaco Pastorius, classical composers - Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner, P. I. Tchaykovskiy, Igor Stravinskiy, Antonio Vivaldi, Edward Grieg. As for the inspiration then I can say that my inspiration comes from films of Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Lucino Visconti, Volker Schlondorff, Piere Paolo Pazolini, Nikita Michkalkov, Andrei Tarkovskiy, Reiner Werner Fassbinder, Vittorio De Sica, Marco Ferreri, Ettore Scola, Eric Rohmer, pictures of Bruegel, Bosch, Gogen, Dali, poems of A. Pushkin & M. Lermontov, novels of F. Dostoevskiy, A. Chekhov, W. Shakespeare, S. Zweig, V. Scott, V. Gugo & G. Flober.


Tell us about some of your recent projects & some of the things you are working on


Well, several days ago I received our five new releases from Sweden: Stanislav Kreitchi: ANSiana - 2000 (ELCD 016), Artemiy Artemiev: Forgotten Themes - 2000 (ELCD 017), Edward Artemiev: A Book of Impressions - 2000 (ELCD 018), Anatoly Pereselegin: Download the God - 2000 (ELCD 019) & Electroshock Presents: Electroacoustic Music. Vol. VI - 2000 (ELCD 020). Now Im working on collaborative CDs with Peter Frohmader (second one), Phillip B. Klingler (second one) & Christopher De Laurenti (first one). Hope to publish them on Electroshock Records in autumn01. Also working on my seventh solo CD-project & collaborative work with American artist Laurence Gartel.


And finally, give us Your current contact info & the best way to obtain Your music.


In the USA & Canada people can order our CDs through our American distributor Archie Patterson, Eurock Distribution, P. O. Box 13718, Portland, OR 97213, USA. Tel/Fax: (503) 281-0247. Or through our Internet distributor Gamma-shop. Its address: www.Gamma-shop.com

Dear Readers,

What about sending me an interview with your favorite musician or arty type? Or maybe your Mother-In-Law.
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