Biogenes Resources is a testament to what a new generation of Russian electronic artists would do. The hope and whimsy that permeate the album hark back to a time of potential, where possibilities stretched across the many time zones of the vast Eastern land. In this reproduction, using the original MIDI files, the past reminds us of both the preciousness of our freedom of expression and that such expression can never be stifled.
An expansive and playful brand of electronics
In some strange twist of history, the Soviet Union seems almost closer now than it did in 1997. Russia has returned a society where silence is the expectation. The hope, or the supposed hope, that came in 1991 has faded as a new form of repression has taken hold. Despite this, there were years of musical rejuvenation. Electronic music bloomed. Talent that had taken root now had the freedom to scatter their sounds. Labels like Art-Tek were seminal in this movement with homegrown artists offering brand new ideas and energy.
Founded by Roman Belavkin, aka Solar X, and Yura Moorush, Art-Tek attracted a new generation of music machinists. Names like Ambidextrous, EU, Fizzarum and Novel 23 became part of the family as a smattering of CD and vinyl slowly became available. You’d have to have had your ear to the ground to have come across the releases, but the artists involved spread their wings to labels like City Centre Offices and Lo Recordings while also inspiring and appearing on contemporary imprints like SEALT. Russian musicians have found it difficult to distribute their music as they once did, current sanctions meaning that Bandcamp cannot be used to sell. The brief light of freedom has been consumed by shadow.
Nevertheless, pinpricks of hope still shine through.
Novel 23, Roman Belousov, has decided to return, to return to his very beginnings. In 1997 his debut album came out on Art-Tek, one of the label’s first releases. Biogenes Resources originally appeared as a cassette tape, Soviet analog machines employed to create an expansive and playful brand of electronics. Fast forward thirty years, Belousov has remade the entire album using the same equipment.
Art-Tek founder, Solar X, recalls that “this was the first music Roman produced I remember, he began writing it in 1996 after we met, and I encouraged him to buy Soviet synths. One of the main instruments there was Electronica EM-25”. It is this very same machine that has been dusted off to recreate the eleven works of the collection.
A narrative of nature runs through the album ::
Novel 23’s first release, the album is filled with charm and the innocence of a young artist. For those not familiar with Belousov’s work, immediate comparisons would be the likes of Bochum Welt or CiM. Here, the mood is somewhat more subdued. Soft synth-lines swirl below acid globules and brittle beats in the opening “Dawn Without Hope.” An off-kilter melody bends and bulges in the fragile “Clear Sky” before the meandering brightness of “Not Caught Fish.”
A narrative of nature runs through the album with track titles such as “Transparent Brook” and “Light Storm Cloud.” Each work holds the seed of the talent that Novel 23 would become. The absorbing and unsettling quality of “Cool Sun Rays”, the texture and warmth of “Thick Mist in Lowland” and understated elegance of “Sunset for Rain” resonate as a precursor to Belousov’s later audio explorations. “Change of Wind & Temperature” is the most immersive offering of the album. Brimming with enthusiasm, flashes of the later Novel 23 sound and style come to the fore.
Biogenes Resources is a testament to what a new generation of Russian electronic artists would do. The hope and whimsy that permeate the album hark back to a time of potential, where possibilities stretched across the many time zones of the vast Eastern land. In this reproduction, using the original MIDI files, the past reminds us of both the preciousness of our freedom of expression and that such expression can never be stifled.
Biogenes Resources is available on Art-Tek. [Bandcamp]
