EU (aka Sasha Zaitcev and Ilya Baramiya) are probably the best known Russian electronic “post-Warp” band. Their music has been released on several labels including Lo Recordings, Cheburec, Art-Tek, Pause_2, and Neo Ouija to name a few. Pause_2, located in Bristol (UK) recently released one of the latest EU’s albums, Warm Math (Review). Their debut full-length with P2 has been compared to Boards Of Canada’s Music Has The Right To Children, so you definitely get a logical feel for what Eu have been up to. Eu are one of the most important artists who are directly responsible for today’s shapes in the new wave of post-IDM music.
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Igloo: Please introduce yourselves. How did EU happen?
Sasha: We are a “two people electronic unit” who started making music back in 1997. Being long time fans of experimental music we decided to do it ourselves. For two or three years we were unlucky – no one seems to be interested in what we do especially here in Russia but then after we placed our stuff on MP3.com/eu1 things changed. Since then we weren’t feeling lack of attention working with a lot of nice people: Tom Betts of Bristol based Pause_2 Records, Jon Tye who runs Lo Recordings, Andrey Muhomorov who runs Russian record label Cheburec. We visited London and Berlin, often playing in St. Petersburg and Moscow, has released some records on above mentioned record labels and some more due to be released. After releasing Warm Math album as EU and Christmas Baubles And Their Strange Sounds as Christmas Baubles lately last year we concentrated heavily on developing of improvisational approach as a way of creating electronic music. Till summer we plan a mini tour in Europe and the UK and collaboration with some famous people.
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EU :: Discography
Christmas Baubles :: Discography
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Igloo: I noticed there are very diverse musicians in your influences – Coil and Residents together with Sting and Prince and lots of other artists like DJ Vadim, Stereolab, Public Enemy, Mouse on Mars, Biosphere, Oval… It’s great that you’re open to different kinds of music. Actually, I think in a way your kind of electronic music looks a lot like Jazz, do you agree? All this post-IDM melody-based music is like Jazz, but in different form. Any thoughts about this?
Sasha: It’s me who likes Jazz, I’m not sure about Ilya.. I don’t know.. Some people would say that Jazz died in the forties, or in fifties or sixties you know.. my friend suggested to use term “new improvisational music” instead of “Jazz” to escape arguing with people about “blackness” of Jazz, or swing etc.. Then I would say that Jamie Lidell’s or As One’s albums are much closer to late Coltrane or Dolphy than any new “Jazz record” these days. It’s hard to think in terms of Jazz about the latest Ae EP, but it has those feelings of new and inspiring roots that classical Jazz records had before. On the opposite, modern IDM or post-IDM scene keeps lack of human feeling to it, lack of true vision, great lack of will to recreate itself. There are still people – Squarepusher, Ae, Mouse On Mars –but they stand on their own.
Ilya: I don’t think that contemporary electronic music is influenced mostly by Jazz… Sometimes it’s inspired by Jazz, yes, but usually I can see more obvious influences by different kind (like hip-hop, techno, dub… etc.). The Greatest records that I heard for last time are Superfurry Animals and Super_Collider..
Igloo: Pause 2 released EU’s Tuner EP, the mini album Reframing and the new album Warm Math. Are you satisfied with your collaboration on this label? It seems they like your music quite a lot, and they do a great job promoting you in UK and around the world.
Sasha/Ilya: Yes, we are satisfied! For sure! Tom Betts, of Pause_2 Rec, made a lot of things for us. He lets us do whatever we want to, he trusts us. We want to work with him more in the future. At the end of the day we are friends.
Igloo: What are your thoughts about the electronic music scene in Russia these days? There are obviously many amazing artists who get world-wide recognition and have fans all around the world, artists like Ambidextrous, Novel 23, Syntetika, you of course, and others… What are your favorite artists from the Russian electronic music scene?
Sasha: There are two compilations on Lo Recordings, UK, – Ru.Electronic and recently released Ru.Electronic 2 which we helped to compile. I think they represent clearly our tastes in Russian electronica. My favorite ones are Sensiva, Tensor (we did an album together for Lo Rec. as Christmas Baubles) and Lonyx. They all are from St. Petersburg. From Moscow I think my favorite one is Alexandroid. And there is a very interesting group in Siberia called Roricat. Now I am working on Out To City Three compilation for Russian record label Cheburec for which I’m choosing most interesting tracks of the moment. It’s due this Autumn on Cheburec Records. Check it out.
Igloo: Believe it or not, there are still some people here in Macedonia (and surely in other countries too) who don’t like electronic music, or even more terrifying – some even think there are no emotions in the (so called) electronic music! What would you tell those people?
Sasha: I very well understand what they mean. I could hardly listen to electronica these days too. For me it’s not question of format – being electronic or rock or something, – it’s question of quality of music. I was lucky – I heard some very good music at the right time in the right place and it was electronic.. What to say? Once you get your chance – use it!
Ilya: They chose wrong records to listen to. There is a lot of rubbish released in any genres. You always have to search through it to find good ones.
Igloo: Recently you played live at Transmediale in Berlin, also in few other European countries (those were your first concerts in Europe I think) and you also had a small tour in Russia. So, how did these concerts go? Are you satisfied with them? Also, have you played in America before and if not do you plan or wish to go there?
Sasha: We played at Transmediale, then in Belgium, then had a mini-tour in the UK. We enjoyed it, it was just great! We didn’t play in USA yet but why not if some one asked us to?
Ilya: We’d been received really good in Europe and UK.
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Warm Math is OUT NOW on Pause2 Recordings. Look out for their upcoming 10″ called Mandarines with Delikatessen (June/2003)! March 29th marked Eu’s entrance in the Default collective playing alongside Christian Kleine and Mr. Projectile. Check the Default site for more.
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