ELECTROSHOCK

The XX century took a special, unique place in the history of the world's music. On the one hand the art of musical improvisation takes its final shape and reaches artistic heights at that time. Music is born spontaneously in the listeners' presence, omitting the stage of preliminary writing. On the other hand, classical musicians turned their attention to the millennial heritage of non-european musical cultures. It enabled them to enrich traditional music with new uncommon harmonies and timbres of various ethnic instruments unheard of before.

Still the most revolutionary breakthrough in the world's music evolution was done because of the active involvement of modern recording and electronic technologies in the process of creating the music. If musicians or composers had to operate with ready-made, fixed timbres of musical instruments - sometimes uncommon ones, but invariable - before, but now they have got really god's power not only over the combinations of ready-made sounds, but over the sound itself. Because of the modern technology composer is able to not only create and reproduce any sound required, he is able to change and convert it as he wants, to decelerate or fasten, to compress or stretch, to decompose it into elementary components. The modern composer prepares a live and trembling sound like a biologist, bending over the microscope, comprehending an amazing mystery and perfection of a live organism's structure.

Composers have been able to master the whole world of sounds existing both in nature and in their imagination. The answers have been found to the questions: what does the sound consist of? What is the difference between musical timbre and noise? Is it possible to make noises sound and make music of them?

The distinction between the "ordinary" sound and the sound of "noble" musical instrument disappeared. It's possible to record the sound of a raindrop falling into a puddle, to lay it on the notes and play your favorite tune with the raindrops. Music of the rain... The world that surrounds us is full of sounds and any of them is ready to transform into music if you wish. And the form it's going to take - would it be European sonnet classic, jazz improvisation or meditative Indian raga - depends on you only.

That is how "the XXI century classic", the modern electronic and electroacoustic music was born. It encompasses the whole world of sound with all its modern finds in the field of harmony and composition, improvisation and exotic musical cultures. That is the kind of music, music of all imaginable and non-imaginable sounds and their incredible transformation and adventure, entirely submitted to the artist's idea, the production of the record label "Electroshock" presented on this site is dedicated to. You can find out more about the history of creating and developing electronic and electroacoustic music in the articles; get to know composers working in these astonishing genres through the numerous and extensive interviews. At last you can choose and order the music itself - unique, the author's editions of CDs with the highest sound quality.

Welcome to the mysterious world of sound!

EDWARD ARTEMIEV

One of the brightest impressions was Edward Artemiev's concert that took place in Yaroslavl in winter 1999. When the Yaroslavl Governor's Orchestra played the symphonic poem "Ocean" (dedication to Andrey Tarkovsky), the orchestra's last sounds met dead silence, the listeners were stunned by its power and expressiveness. A few seconds of total silence appeared to be eternity. And only after that pause the audience burst into ovation. The people stood up to applause the author.

Edward Artemiev is the author of numerous symphonic and chamber pieces of music. But this side of his creativity is still not widely known. The name of Edward Artemiev is known mostly because of his work in cinematography. In famous Andrey Tarkovsky's movies unearthly landscapes of Solaris or cruel and merciful tense space of the Zone are subject to the music of the composer. Edward Artemiev conveys irreproachably both the slightest soul moves of the characters in Nikita Mikhalkov's movies and the epic panoramas of the movies by Andrey Konchalovsky. Edward Artemiev's creative work integrates austere canons of the classic and the most modern achievements in the field of electronic and experimental music. New methods of recording can make ancient musical instruments - to the accompaniment of which the Gomer's characters were preparing for war as in the movie "Odyssey" by Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky - sound in an up-to-date way. The music for this film puts Edward Artemiev in one line with such masters of American cinematographic music as John Williams or Jerry Goldsmith.

Only the cinema work is mentioned here. But Artemiev's works are much more varied. His acquaintance with the electronic music happened in 1960. Already in the post-war years many European musicians started using recorders as musical instruments. That is how the concrete music by Pierre Schaffer, the acousmetic music by Francis Dhomont, the electronic avant-garde by Karlheinz Stockhausen was born. These names and styles are known all over the world. But not many people remember that at the same time the first synthesizer ANS - a unique instrument that doesn't have analogues in the world - was created in Russia! In the beginning of the sixties young composers attracted by the unprecedented possibilities of the new music united round the engineer E. A. Murzin the synthesizer's creator. They were the ones who first started the journey to mysteries of the sound. Young Edward Artemiev was among them. His compositions that were created at the dawn of the electronic and electroacoustic music's emergence are universally recognized masterpieces of the genre. They are all presented on the CDs under the label "Electroshock Records". Besides, you can find some interviews with the famous composer, the history of his musical career, discography and a detailed list of composition on this site.

ARTEMIY ARTEMIEV

...At first there was one voice, smooth, flowing and calm. Gradually, little by little, new sounds started to join it. Some of them were quiet and soft, others were disturbing and tense. The timbre of every sound was changed and distorted so much that one could hardly guess on base of what it was created. The sounds were growing, making layers, whimsically interweaving, sometimes parting and then every sound was carrying out its own capricious part, sometimes mingling, forming indivisible, almost noisy background, where one could hardly hear separate details. It was not music in the traditional way of thinking, not the evolution of a certain theme or melody. Rather, it was particular sound substance that was moving, living its own life, powerfully making your soul submit to the rhythmical pulse. The sound was gradually becoming more and more light and transparent...and then it was gone. You cannot remember or replay in the mind what was played just a minute ago; you can remember not the sound but the emotional state caused by the composition.

This is the music of one of the leading Russian electronic and electroacoustic composers Artemiy Artemiev. Practically every new Artemiy's album was given prestigious rewards of international festivals and competitions. Artemiy Artemiev is also known as the author of music for many movies, plays and radioplays.

Still music is not the only sphere where Artemiy has got an international success. In 1997 he founded the record label "Electroshock Records" that produces and distributes electronic and electroacoustic music. Today "Electroshock" is well known all over the world. Thanks to the CDs produced under this label, compositions of the most interesting Russian and foreign composers have become accessible to a large audience. "Electroshock" has its own site, which you visiting now.

On this site you'll be able to find out more about musical career of Artemiy E. Artemiev and his complete discography. Some interviews will help you to understand the composer's creative atmosphere, where this fantastic music is made. Finally, you can choose and order any CD of his solo works or co-projects. And then the music that has been filling the mysterious half-dark of elite halls of international festivals is going to sound in your house too.