Stanislav Sharifullin alias hmot is a sound artist and producer based in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. He runs the tape label Klammklang and has been co-curator of CTM Siberia festival which took place last month for the first time. For this Groove podcast he compiled a mix of Siberian Electronic, Experimental and Post Punk music.
How did you select the tracks?
It’s a personal selection of works from the local artists whom I find the most exciting at the moment. I’d say it briefly represents the music scene in the region, especially Novosibirsk, Omsk and Krasnoyarsk, the three biggest cities in Siberia. It’s a mixture of artists who are here considered as established ones an some fresh names. So there are some key figures in local avant-garde and improvisational scenes, a couple of my favorite Post Punk and Noise Rock bands and some contemporary Experimental Electronica, mostly from the labels Echotourist, Hair Del and Klammklang. The mixtape starts and ends with Egor Letov and his band Grazhdanskaya Oborona — arguably the most important and influential underground band in USSR and afterwards Russia. Their last record was released in 2007 and its name was Zachem Snyatsya Sny (Why Do We Have Dreams?). Less then a year later Egor died in his sleep in his home in Omsk.
Is there in your opinion something like a unifying aesthetic when it comes to electronic music from Siberia?
I’d rather say that there are some unifying principles of making music. It’s very uncompromising — there’s no independent industry, we owe nothing to anyone, we’re completely free to express ourselves. The process of music making is always a dialogue with the public space you exist in — and since there’s no Berghain next door, no agencies and managers, no big record labels, nothing — you don’t have to keep in mind all that fucking bullshit — say when people produce a ‘proper’ sound for ‘proper’ venue, label or even specific audience. We’re following our own path, just having fun and doing whatever we want to.
What are the biggest obstacles you’re facing when it comes to making and distributiong your music?
Only these ‘you need to grow up and get a real job’ twats. In general, the scene is growing and we really love it.
What’s the meaning of the spoken word intro?
In English it doesn’t sound as good as it sounds in Russian — not even fucking close. But maybe you get the feel:
‘Like after a heavy and long-term illness
I went out in the gray and cozy rain
The passers-by are sculpting me as they wish —
same like it was before —
I wear a crumpled and sweaty pajamas
But already without pretensions for a white flight
the Fall is coming soon.’
Download (MP3, 320 kBit/s, 51:38 Min., 118 MB)
1. Egor Letov — Tak Zhe, Kak Ran’she
2. Kustota — Paket 08
3. Ferrein — Hover
4. Fanny Kaplan — Sveta
5. Buerak — Ya Hochu Byt Dushevnobolnym
6. Nikita Bondarev — Ruins
7. Hmot & Kathrin Wildner — Nsk in G#m (excerpt)
8. Space Holiday Rocks — 1970 Deutschland
9. KP Transmission — Temnoe Poznaetsya Chernim
10. Roman Stolyar — Ritual
11. Bugaev — Live In Krasnoyarsk 07.05.15 (excerpt)
12. Misha Sultan — Untitled 1
13. The Patience — Union Cae En El Tropico
14. Appleyard — Kurort
15. Dyad — BOAT4_1
16. Foresteppe — From The Storm
17. Grazhdanskaya Oborona — Myortvyje
