VIII. FIELD REPORT: Oleg Kostrow, Oleg Gitarkin, Messer Fur Frau Muller, Messer Chups, and Stora... [01.12.2001] The music of zany Russian samplesmiths Oleg Kostrow and Oleg Gitarin is magical and multidimensional. Messer Fur Frau Muller and Messer Chups projects combine beats, film samples, found sounds, scratchy historical recordings, loungey or cartoon sounds from the 50's, guitar, and whatever the hell else there is around. Beautifully extending the entire history of Russian absurdism, irony, and anecdotal humor, Kostrow and Gitarkin expresse in electronic sampled music the legend started by such as Sergej Kuryokhin and mid-80's early Russian avant-jazz post-modernists. Kostrow's music has been used for theatrical and performance projects around the world, most notably at the Royal Festival Hall in London, where his music (recorded as "Snow Queen") accompanied a performance project by Russian designer Bartenev. Stora Records, a German outpost of excellent and beautifully eccentric music from Eastern Europe, accurately compares Kostrow's pioneer approach to that of electronic pioneer Aphex Twin; the difference is that Kostrow's musical tropes are euphoric, happy, sultry, and full of polydimensional, multikulti cultural tricks. Gitarkin and Messer Chups started with albums of extreme noise guitar music. Current Messer Fur Frau Muller combines Kostrow's talents with those of Oleg Gitarkin on guitar; like minds creating bizarre yet intensely likeable music, both by now well-known names in the Moscow and Petersburg electronic scenes. Gitarin's guitar playing is distinctive: either noisy punk on early albums or super tweaked or bassy on later Messer Chups albums, his wit comes across. Prolific artists, and extremely enjoyable music, check out their very disinctive sounds in a concert near you. It is rumored that Messer Fur Frau Muller may perform in New York around the New Year, and certainly expect them in Germany early in 2002. On a side note: Stora Records recently released an absolutely odd musical wonder called Nova Huta, "At Bambij Robot's Nonstop Datscha." The story behind the recording goes like this (fakt? fiction? anyone's guess): in '92, German sound-composer Reznicek (Hamburg) received a package from his old uncle Vrantislav "Bambij" Robot from Poland, who was the hired composer and organ player at the Nova Huta steelworks; apparently under Communism hired musicians to get workers through the day. Vrantislav's package contained a small Casio organ, within which were stored his uncle's 99 compositions, and a letter asking that Reznicek preserve them in some way. Eventually, Reznicek completed the project: electronic compositions stirring together polkas, melancholic waltzes, bursting with something Slavonic and something unbelievably fresh and new. Eventually Reznicek even performed some of the works with Mariola Brillowska in a show called Las Vegas Show in 1997. If you have the chance, go to to Tamizdat and click to Nova Huta for an entirely inspiring listen! These Stora Records and other Messer Fur Frau Muller relaeses available on Tamizdat RPM! electronic: Messer Chups (side project of Messer fur Frau Muller), "Miss Libido" (Solnze) Messer Chups, "Vamp Babes" (Hyper Utessov/Solnze) Oleg Kostrow, "The Great Flashing Tracks from Iwona" (Stora) Oleg Kostrow, "Snow Queen" (Stora) Nov Huta, "At Bambij Robot's Nonstop Datscha" (Stora) Messer Fur Frau Muller, "Dreams" (Hyper Utessov) Nozhik Chups, "Nevesta Atom" (Hyper Utessov) noise: Messer Fur Frau Muller, "Senores Crakovjaks" (Solnze) Messer Fur Frau Muller, "Happy End Dead" (Solnze)
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