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Nigdeniya CD-R (ltd. 150) ZHB-XXXVI 1. Kromeshna + M.Nomized - Metronome 2. M.Nomized + Kromeshna - Perenosica Sna [mp3] 3. M.Nomized + Obozdur - Dubious Part 1 4. Dmitry Rodionov Experience + Kromeshna + M.Nomized - Water Illusion [mp3] 5. M.Nomized + Obozdur - Dubious Part 2 6. Kromeshna + M.Nomized - Pastel 7. M.Nomized + Obozdur - Dubious Part 3 [mp3] 8. Kromeshna + M.Nomized - Up And Down total length: 61:51 release date: December 14, 2012 price: €7 * bandcamp.com

Nigdeniya is a mail-art project initiated by Vitaly Maklakov - a painter and musician from the Siberian town of Kamensk-Uralskiy, known to the fans of Russian noise underground for the projects Light Collapse, Kromeshna, Obozdur and DIY-labels Ostroga and Heart-Shaped Box. On the first album of this new project he collaborates with Michel Madrange aka M.Nomized - an honoured activist of the French underground since 1975. One track also features the Russian musician Dmitry Rodionov with his project Dmitry Rodionov Experience.

"Nigdeniya" (translated from Russian as "Nowhereland") is an utopia state, an idea drawn out of writings of the English philosopher & humanist Thomas More. This is a geographical and socio-political fantasy, a place not found on Earth - as there is no place for this musical project whose creations are born in virtual space during an exchange of material by mail. The result of this exchange is presented in 8 compositions, in which electronic rhythms are tightly interwoven with multi-layered arrangements made of synthesized sounds, voices, sampled musical fragments and field recordings, forming striking industrial psychedelic kaleidoscope of visions.

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Reviews

Music by mail: P16.D4 already learned us how to do that in 1982 with their 'Distruct' project - meaning 'distant structures'. Back then, mail was really mail, envelope, stamp etc. These days mail is of course e-mail, but more like it all goes through so-called share sites, where you can easily send each other large volumes of sound. People who have never met, create music like they have been in a studio together. Nigdeniya is such a project, started by Vitaly Maklakov, who is a painter and musician from Siberian town Kamensk-Uralskiy. He also works as Light Collapse, Kromeshna, Obozdur and DIY-labels Ostroga and Heart-Shaped Box, but I wouldn't know the difference between all these names. Here he works together with M.Nomized, also known as Michel Madrange, and in the 80s an important activist on the matter of sound cassettes, gaining fame on many compilations. It's hard to say who does what here, as M. Nomized gets a few times first name credit and sometimes second name, while Maklakov hides as Kromeshna on five tracks, as Obozdur on three and then there is the guest Dmitry Rodionov Experience. The band name translates as 'nowhereland', an utopian state. One could think this is fantasy equals drone music, but that's not the case here. I must admit I am not sure what to make of this album. It's perhaps it started off with something I didn't expect. The first two pieces revolve around a bigger amount of rhythm than I probably anticipated. Not exactly of a techno fashion, but more of an industrialized Muslimgauze'd version - more late 80s than late 90s, if you get my drift. I am not blown away by these. The other six pieces are more deep ambient affairs, with lots of synthesizers (including an arpeggio is 'Water Illusion'), some taped voices and sounds from the local market place. Here too we have loops, but make up less of a 'rhythm' if you know what I mean, or is at least buried inside the mix more than on the first piece (which is called 'Metronome' - that is no coincidence). The music is quite diverse here, and not always seem to fit together; sometimes I had the impression some of these sounds don't fit together very well, but are used for the sake of using them. Maybe that too is part of the esthetics of a music by mail collaboration, but I think the objective should be to do great music. That only leads to a handful nice tracks and some less successful attempts.

Without sparing even one second on my spoiled urge for getting myself comfortable before listening to an album I have never heard before, Nigdeniya is opening the gates completely as soon as I hit the Play button, and is filling the room with sounds that, more than being dark, are alien to me. This is a great experience, and as I am forced into this experiment I get to read about the artists a little.

When I read the fascinating book ‘Utopia’ by Thomas More, there was the obvious point when his stories and ideas began to sound wrong and twisted, and his world, his alien world that is no where to be found, is the ground for Nigdeniya’s (Nowhereland) album. This is a mail art project done between Vitaly Maklakov and Michel Madrange and Dimitry Rodionov. Together they go through realms of dark sounds that collapse like tidal waves on acidic shores of psychedelic hives of sound wiring. While I cannot strictly say that this is a “Dark Ambient” album per se, it certainly brings some freshness to the genre that seems not to move anywhere. Perhaps the geographical distance between the creators of this music is the responsible element for the powerful dynamics of Nigdeniya’s self titled album.

What I love the most about Zhelezobeton’s releases is that I am not quite sure about what to expect before listening to them, and there are always good surprises. Nigdeniya is a great work and one that sparks the interest and curiosity about future plans for the artists behind it. We will see how things go in the future for this nowhereland, for now it looks like a powerful, fascinating and wondrous step to the land of utopia.

Nigdenya is a music project by Siberian artist Vitaly Maklakov (e.g. Kromeshna), realized by sending material between himself and other artists. Main collaborator is the French M.Nomized, who has been active since the 70s. The soundscape created by the project is like a combination of French 90s synth-pop, shades of noise, waves of buzz and pulsating rhythms. It is very intriguing and flows nicely from one part to the next, but remains mostly without any attention-catching elements. That’s the way it starts, at least - as the album goes further, it shrinks into mostly just play with half-rhythmic themes, none of which are really interesting. Luckily close to the end some more interesting themes appear once more, at times with speech-sampled ambient, at times with just ambient, but they don’t stay very long.

All the parts that could make a great album, at several points, but no idea really bears fruit. This creates not a sense of wasted potential, but nevertheless so much blandness, that one just knows more could be expected from these artists.

Set up by Vitaly Maklakov – a Russian painter and musician active in very different projects, Nigdeniya is the Russian word for ‘Nowhereland’. It ‘is an utopia state, an idea drawn out of writings of the English philosopher & humanist Thomas Moore. This is a geographical and socio-political fantasy, a place not found on Earth - as there is no place for this musical project whose creations are born in virtual space during an exchange of material by mail’.

The concept of utopia is a quite interesting item and especially if you like the work of Moore, but the transposition into music by Nigdeniya definitely sounds more interesting for music lovers. Maklakov is mixing styles moving in between industrial and ritual. He composes a kind of sonic mayhem joined by noticeable rhythmic parts. In the end it all becomes a kind of rhythmic-ritual journey. The songs have been achieved by the input of guest musicians, the legendary French artist M.Nomized being for sure a quite surprising, but cool feature.

Some parts are quite experimental revealing an impressive arsenal of noises. You feel like in front of a sonic puzzle Nigdeniya is not entire recomposing. It injects an abstract touch on top of more rhythmic and ritual tracks. The tracks are filled by intriguing moods while a sampling of ‘Allahu Akbar’ is only reinforcing the global mystery this album is hiding.

Conclusion: Limited to 150 copies this debut work of Nigdeniya is a must have for all lovers of industrial- and ritual music.

Without any doubt, sometimes people seek for the place to run away from everyday life, from all the problems around and stuff that tries to hit you hard each day. Some of them find the escape in imaginary worlds, and music can be a key which can open the gates wide to those hideaways. That's why three noble gentlemen that are responsible for the piece of plastic in my hand find their place of comfort and an inspiring theme in a state of Nigdeniy", a "Nowhereland". The land that can never exist was born in imagination of Thomas More in his famous novel 'Utopia' around 500 years ago and this word can describe precisely the musical content of the album that sees light at Russian based Zhelezobeton label during 2013.

Three comrades contributed to this release under the concept of so called "mail art", when the artists didn't meet during the process and exchanged the material via mail. Three different visions of electronic experimental music are bound together to reveal the "Nowhereland" full of various colors and moods.

What can be heard directly from the beginning is the complexity and multilayered structure inside each composition. The music has a strong atmospheric background and a certain melody that floats somewhere high in the sky. Layers of electronic pulsations and disturbances, special effects and scratches, different sampled voices and spoken words, all of them are mixed together and glued with a looping electronic beat that injects a constant rhythm inside the music. "Metronome", "Perenosicia Sna", "Water Illusion", the compositions have the same signature, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but it is easily recognizable indeed. Few parts remind a little bit of Legendary Pink Dots with their heavy psychedelic accent, like "Dubious" part 1 and 2 and "Pastel". It seems from time to time, that while traveling inside the internet between the artists, the parts of the music soaked its spirit, the energy of data streams, human emotions and feelings being transmitted by constant electronic impulses. Virtual machinery exists along with the real world and that close cooperation grows into interesting symbiosis. There is a strong feeling that the mysterious land "Nigdeniya" lies behind the ultimate cover of physical continuum, wrapped in magnetic fields which hypnotize the listener with a constant pulsations, absorbing his energy to feed the morphing substance that lives inside.

A thickness of the border between "Nowhereland" and our regular world is defined only by a desire of our imagination to break it and to drift away. Living without the ability to escape even for an hour to the place where nobody can reach you, I think it is a very sad case. The musicians that contribute to this release have the right idea of how to craft a very dense landscape and turn it to be a hideaway of the listeners' dreams. Sometimes the entertaining part looses its power a bit, and I think, as a result of the chase after complexity.

I am pretty sure though that if the collaboration of those gentlemen continues to evolve, it can grow into something that will generate many hours of pure joy; there are few corners that need to be sharpened and polished in order to penetrate my soul much deeper. Anyhow, the land that can never exist is right here, so what are you waiting for?