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With roots stretching back to the 1980’s underground music of the Soviet Union and Finland, Alexei Borisov from Moscow and Anton Nikkilä from Helsinki have been collaborating since the mid-90’s. The duo’s live performances are a highly developed form of surrealist music, which uses a kaleidoscopic array of textures and techniques – plundered and deconstructed Muzak and smooth jazz, fast-paced musique concrète improvisation, chaotic noise, skewed vocals, detuned guitars and wayward drumming, lo-fi fx devices contrasted with detailed digital signal processing.
The track "Engineer Strepetov's Curve" is featured on the "Wire Tapper 19" compilation CD given away for free with the April issue of The Wire Magazine.
"The Spectre of Muzak" which opens the album is featured on the "Untypical" compilation CD curated by Arturas Bumsteinas for the Lithuanian arts magazine CAC Interviu. The CD comes with this year's first issue of the magazine in April.
The gig took place at the club event organised by Finnish anti-war organisations on the United Nations Day, which is the traditional day of peace rallies in Helsinki. The venue, Belly, is located in the busy bar and nightclubbing area in the centre of Helsinki and usually hosts indie and alternative rock bands.
The evening started with a panel discussion with two ex-ministers of the Finnish government, academic analysts and others talking about "the security situation in Afghanistan". Some of the panel discussion's audience stayed for the rest of the event. The opening act was the young singer-songwriter Kaisa Vala, who accompanied herself on piano. Headliners were 22-Pistepirkko, one of the longest-running Finnish alternative rock groups.
The performance of Borisov & Nikkilä was mistakenly advertised as a trio with Tom Smith (of To Live And Shave In L.A.). Tom had cancelled his mini-tour of Russia just weeks before, when he wrote us and in his blog as well the following:
Naturally our collaboration with Tom Smith will continue at some point. Due out soon is a To Live And Shave In L.A. remix CD, which features contributions by both Alexei Borisov and Anton Nikkilä.
(The Wire, UK, July 2008)
