Russian musician and composer from Saint-Petersburg Valery Siver began to compose music at the age of 16. He received a professional musical education after having finished a classic guitar class of teacher Anatoly Khvan at the age of 27 at Music School for adults named after N. Rimsky-Korsakov in Saint-Petersburg. Valery Siver says about classic guitar that it is "an instrument playing on which a man presses it to his heart. In the process of creating music on the instrument a body and a sole of a composer resonate with vibrations of an instrument".

Creating of melodies, or as he says "process of their birth" is the most attractive aspect for Valery. "Process of melodies' birth originates from feeling of ecstasy, soul vibration, all-embracing attraction to a musical instrument. The moment of touch to a string or a key gives fantastic pleasure". Valery Siver's debut as a composer took place in 2000 when his album entitled "Resettlementer" was published.

The basis of musical creative work of Valery Siver is melodism (tuning) and results of searching of optimum modern forms of expressing those images, which are created by melodies and harmonies or images giving birth to the melodies and harmonies. Valery Siver says: "Instrumental music is created by a creature (a subject) which consists of two parts allegedly: a man being a source of emotions, feelings, excitements, fantasies and a musical instrument being a source of sound".

In 2001 as a producer Valery Siver released an album of dance remixes "Love Unlimited" in addition to his album "Resettlementer". Just while preparing the second album Valery met KirYll.

Kiryll Trepakov is a 32-year-old musician and audio producer from Moscow. From childhood, he was trained to play classic guitar, and was also fond of radio engineering. He steadily worked to develop his talents and hone his skills, first with performances in a school rock band, and then in more serious bands. After entering a music college, in addition to the guitar, Kiryll started learning to play drums and folk plucked-string instruments. And there he began recording students' jazz bands. In addition, he began a new calling in sound engineering, an area in which he has become quite successful.

Kiryll was invited to play the guitar in various bands. As a result, he appeared as an accompanist on the guitar in the group of M. Zvezdinsky, the famous Russian composer and singer. Soon Zvezdinsky purchased his own studio, where Kiryll helped to arrange songs and continued to improve his skills in sound engineering. Since 1993, Kiryll has managed to equip his own home-based recording studio. Meanwhile he played the guitar in the alternative bands "K. U. Street Spring" and "Medusa7". In 1996, he started his own project, "Expedition Zero", and continued to search for new sounds in his studio. The results of these long-term endeavors are ten albums, five of which were successfully issued on Russian electronic labels. As an accomplished musician, Kiryll composes music for TV commercials, and scores for computer games. He works on recording and mixing church choirs and bells, and also prepares audio language courses and arranges music for pop bands. But Kiryll as well as Valery has always aspired to compose serious and intellectual music. And this was the driving force behind creation of their joint project with Valery Siver "Midway".

Ultramodern sound and compositional depth were characteristics of Kirill's electronic pieces that interested Valery, so he offered Kiryll to compose a collaborative album based on melodies played with acoustic guitar by Valery. Later the project was titled "Midway". Guitar parties and production of music from it in album tracks were made by Valery Siver himself and Kirill Trepakov was engaged in searching and performance of other sounds. But why "Midway"?

Valery: "It seems to me I've pass the half of the way to the creating my musical forms and life itself. So, this project is one of the results."

Kirill: "It's like a way to the absolute, - no matter how close you come to it you still have half way to go... You just have to stop in a moment to understand what is you next step."

More detailed information about musicians and project you can find on their web pages.

http://www.siver.org - home page of composer Valery Siver

http://www.motovilo.ru - "Expedition Zero", "Midway" and other projects of "Motovilo Records".

Valery Siver - discography

a). Solo CDs:

"Resettlementer" (CD-ннн "SoftTrans", 2000)

"Love Unlimited" - an album of dance remixes based on "Resettlementer" - (CD-ннн "SoftTrans", 2001)

Kiryll Trepakov

a). With "Expedition Zero":

"Ultra Hi" (Citadel/Discocsid CD, 2000)

"Ambulance" (Citadel/Discocsid CD, 2001)

"By the Light of the Earth" (Citadel/Discocsid CD, 2001)

"Deep Sleep" (Cosmos Sound Club CD, 2002)

Valery Siver & Kiryll Trepakov:

"Midway" (Electroshock Records ELCD 035, 2003)