DAR: How did the assembly constitute? Who had the idea and who selected the projects (I suppose OMS) or did they find together on their own? How do you relate to the other projects?

Olegh: The idea of "secret assemblies" belongs to Igog from Noises of Russia project. Two years ago when they performed in Kyyiv together with Deutsch Nepal we (me and Sergey (OMS owner)) got aquainted with them all and he (Sergey) invited the two to our native city, Zhytomyr, to have a concert in a year. That's the way it happened. The projects are quite common imho anyway even if in some, noise prevails over ambience, and vice versa.

DAR: Was producing the DVD planned before the event took place? I was a bit disappointed about the surround mix on the DVD. It's totally flat, only silence on the LFE channel. Sounds like a cheap stereo extend to me rather than capturing the acoustic characteristics of the locations with a real 5 channel microphone setup. Were there any special technical precautions with regard to the DVD production?

Olegh: The production, as far as I know, was planned before, though I'm not sure Sergey had a clear idea how to execute that, hence the very production lacks something, most accents were shifted onto careful shooting from different angles rather then mics real-time recording. This is the first experience I suppose but he worked with some profi video engineeres too. Though again the sound is flat, true but that's what he could afford I guess.

DAR: And here is one concerning your set: The spacey visualization that you used contained very plain statements that illuminate your opinion about such ideas as nationalism. It seemed to me not fitting together very well. I understand east european nationalism plays a role against western influence as a defensive identity after the post sovjet aera. But why do you think wrapping these messages in a dark ambient / industrial (quite an international scene after all) performance is really adequate?

Olegh: Well, I was given a floor to represent my music and my set included some 10 tracks from the period between 1998-2008. I had an opportunity to expose the ideas I'm interested in and to forward them towards the Ukrainian audience gathered. Since Ukraine has been suffering from kind of inferiority in comparison to Russia and its citizens (at least half of them) are indifferent to dependence on Russia I thought it would be quite adequate to evoke a feeling of patriotism towards the country they life in. The messages are simple, in the face, and that's the way I really feel. I also wanted people worldwide wouldn't think most Ukrainians are nation-blind, - they do care. Many have to prove that everyday, and still many have to be reminded about that too, that they are Ukrainians and have to be proud of that. I do.
That was my first live set and probably nowadays I would change some aspects but generally I feel I'm ok with worldwide establishing of my political and social views. Though don't get me wrong pls, I'm not a russophob but I'd like more people in Ukraine were patriots of the land they life in. Moreover I do not think dark ambient should be exceptionally about some abstrach things, low-key emotions and unknown galaxies...We are surrounded by real things, here and now, and they influnce us one way or the other. Still I like space exploration themes too surely, and devote some time on this matter.

DAR: Ok, so I was wrong about these messages being directed against western influence. This is getting quite political now... but anyhow: Recent events in the Ukrainian parliament show how feelings run high on this topic. From the outside it seems like there are just two alternatives: pro russia vs. pro western/USA. But isn't the post-industrial scene more about transcending those identities that lead to all these ideological aberrations in the world? And why would you want a "worldwide establishing" of your ideas when it only concerns Ukrainian people? What would you tell a Swiss citizen why language determines her national identity? And above all: in Ukraine, russian, as a language, is prevailing as far as I know. Wouldn't this mean to unite all russian speaking people of the Ukraine with all else in east Europe and Asia to form some kind of Russian union, resulting in displacement, assimilation, or extinction of all non-russian speaking people? I thought you opted for all those nations, suffering from 'inferiority'. I'm a bit confused now... Isn't Russia suffering from inferiority to the USA as well?

Olegh: Feelings are indeed high, but still I try not to get that involved into the subject matter - my civil job is far from that and it saves me from blindfoldness. Sure, many follow the alternative you have just mentioned but if you asked me whether I back any I would definitely say "no". I just question everything I see, I doubt everything I'm told via mass media and trust my senses and my reason - otherwise one is a whitewashed canon meat to serve somebody's ambitions.
Worldwide establishing is absolutely crucial. When you have a look at the world and the countries, and the languages in particular you'll be surprised to realize how many lack and have been looking for national identities via languages. The examples are too dramatic: Belgium is sharply separated between Dutch and French speakers, the Flemings and Walloons are still almost exactly where Julius Caesar left them after De Bello Gallico; Canada faces a severe problem in defining its national identity, increasingly divided between English-speakers and French-speakers; the sense of Catalan identity is linked closely to possession of the Catalan language and has been recognised by the autonomous status conceded to Catalonia by Spain; Switzerland is linguistically divided with French, Italian and German and some other languages, Swiss do not and cannot define their national culture by language though Swiss-German, which is incomprehensible outside Switzerland, is something by which the German-Swiss are satisfied to distinguish themselves from 'other' Germans; the Celtic peoples of Europe defined by language constitute six separate nations; in Eastern Europe there is a strong correlation between religion, ethnicity, language and nationality: there are unsettled problems in Bulgaria, the question of the Turkish minority could return, there are difficulties relating to language-based minorities in Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Serbia, in Slovakia the Slovak majority has been imposing increasingly stringent language restrictions on the ethnic Hungarian minority. I mean this language problem is close to everyone. I felt I need to send a message, I mean if it is a live set - it shouldn't be taken for granted, there should be an idea to convey, hence I chose the one we are discussing. Though when I simply listen to any music I like I prefer to get involved emotionally only, music should evoke emotions - I belive that's its only purpose which is shifted when visualized.
Russia is in search of a "national idea" that can define its essence and inspire its citizens in the struggle for a post-Soviet identity. Religion and ethnicity are not a sufficient foundation because Russia has 20 ethnic republics dominated by Tartars, Muslims and others. The process of state building in post-Soviet Russia takes the form of an attempt to create new "national identities" in Russia's regions, involving education and language policy, cultural policy and the politics of symbols. But it fails. Russian is generally the language of administration and 'modern' activities and also a lingua franca of communication between local ethnicities. Resident Russians perceive the post-Soviet elevation of local vernaculars to 'state languages' as a threat. Minorities have the same rights and they claim for them.
Historically, given the dominance of English, language has not been a major theme in American life. Recently concern about the growth in the use of other languages, notably Spanish, has led to 20 states or more prescribing English as their official language. Traditionally American national feeling has not been ethnic but based on a sense of shared belonging and social identity which has meant that at least in theory anybody could become an American citizen but this required a commitment to English as the common language. So you see I do not differentiate any other problem in-between Russia and the USA (I don't really care about their problems) and do not sense inferiority there save some high officials maybe who stress one's superiority now and then.

DAR: Thank you for explaining yourself. I will stress the music more in my summary...

... which might not produce a good image of the release as -- I mentioned it before -- the DVD itself stresses on the visual aspects. The audio is rather bootleg quality. Even if you switch off the poor dolby digital audio track that can hardly be described as mastered (max level at -20dB, no LFE channel, zero spacial effect), the stereo track is still far away from what you could call a professional live recording.

The performance I liked most was Filivs Macrocosmi with an alternative Stalker soundtrack, which obviously was taken from the OMS CD release by the same name. A 46 minutes journey of the spiritual kind with visualizations that are coherent to the music, e.g. the "tak tak" of the track motor car on it's way into "the zone". I only wished there was an alternative digital track taken straight away from the CD rather than the poor sounding live track.

The quality of the copy seemed poor too. I just found one drive that was abel to read the DVD and made a copy of it.

My reaction on the DVD was to order the Stalker CD (and maybe I will glue it to the video footage of the DVD)

DarkAmbient schrieb:
I wouldn't mind if most of the audio track was a digital copy because microphones and mixing were crap at the site. To deliberately record the (rare) audience responses and mix them into the digital source at choosen points would have been the better choice here.

In the press-release for DVD and on disc box clearly stated "dolby digital stereo", so why look for something that is not, and while frankly surprised at this?

DVD need to play on a DVD-players, rather than look for PC-driver to copy it....

I do not think that on the CD you will find specific differences from the concert sound that much richer because of the additional audio realtime manipulations by 1g0g of Noises of Russia and the subsequent audio-processing, details of which I do not want to reveal....

DarkAmbient schrieb:
There is no such thing as dolby digital stereo. Either it's dolby digital (which is 5.1 surround) or dolby stereo (which is an early analog surround technique).

I tried with my DVD player first, of course.

Sure, he improvised a bit and that's cool. But I don't like the bootleg sound at all and that's why I prefer a nice studio version of the Stalker track.

vile schrieb:

You hardly record a decent live performance through microphones even if the music is loud and simple as hell, and for such a precise and delicate piece of sound art as ambient music is I think recording live only through microphones at the place is quite, quite inappropriate.

I do not see reason to record music material in 5.1. Who is listen music in 5.1.? I'm not....

It's not bootleg sound, it's real live sound... with some post audio processing... and can't count it as a MINUS!

DarkAmbient schrieb:
So why is there a 5.1 track on the DVD then?

DarkAmbient schrieb:
I'm sorry, you are right: it's stereo. I just saw AC3 displayed for the audio track. Didn't know that with dolby digital it was even possible to use it just for a 2-channel track. I used an old WinDVD 4 with no special presets, which obviously had problems decoding AC3-stereo correctly. It served me well in the past.