Genre: Experimental Ambient

Label: Abstand

Moscow-born Andrey Guryanov has produced an album for the ages.

He has taken recorded performances of the Soviet Union’s anthem, which changed multiple times over the course of that country’s existence, produced a collection of pieces from the pause between the tuning chord at the start of each piece and the first verse. The finished product sounds nothing like the anthems themselves, yet manages to express all of the oppressiveness and anxiety that government became known for.

“For a while, I had the feeling that this work was unfinished, and that the history it resembles was unfinished as well,” writes Guryanov in the album’s notes. “I was hoping for the best, expecting the worst, but I couldn’t even imagine the horrific full-scale invasion Russia started in Ukraine. Since February 24 there is nothing more to say. The track ‘2022’ is built solely on the sound of explosions in Ukraine, collected from Youtube. War, violence, and cruelty have become the new anthem.”