Articles by Timothy Misir



Film Music Celebrates Work of Soviet Composer Mikael Tariverdiev

Twenty years after his death, a new compilation of Mikael Tariverdiev’s film music is bringing the composer’s oeuvre more recognition outside Russia.

Photographer Shines Light on Overlooked Soviet Architectural Wonders

A project by a Canadian photographer is drawing attention to an overlooked area of Soviet architecture — bus stop design.

Biennale Week: Special Guests and Projects Not to Miss

"My Red Homeland" is the British-Indian sculptor's first solo exhibition in Russia, and will include three major sculptures from the Turner Prize winner's three integral, though distinct, bodies of work: mirrors, voids, and the auto-generated. Kapoor will also give a talk at the opening of the show.

6th Moscow Biennale Opens at VDNKh

The 6th Moscow Biennale, bringing together more than 70 participants from 30 countries, opens today at VDNKh. The biennale, which ran into financial difficulties brought about by the weak ruble, looks to be an interesting one despite its reduced program. Instead of being a full-fledged exhibition, it will function as a "think tank realized in real-time."

Curator Bart De Baere: A Moscow Biennale Preview

The 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art opens next Tuesday and runs for only 10 days. Its mouthful of a theme is "How to Gather? Acting in a Center in a City in the Heart of the Island of Eurasia," which looks at questions of how to live together today and collaborate to address future challenges.

Avant-Garde Architects Brodsky and Utkin in the Spotlight

The early works of Russian avant-garde architects Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin — copper plate etchings of dystopian and fantastical worlds — are in the spotlight again, with an exhibition of the duo's work at the Tate Modern in London as part of the gallery's ongoing "Poetry and Dream" displays, and a reprint of "Brodsky & Utkin," a collected volume of their etchings.

Cult Electronic Music Producers to Share Stage at Selector After Dark

Electronic music fans in Moscow are in for a treat Friday, as FunkinEven and Brassfoot, two producers from cult electronic music label Apron Records, will make their Russian debut at the British Council's Selector After Dark sessions at the Science and Art club (NII).

Mark Fell Brings Sex Therapy-Inspired Electronic Music to Moscow

Multidisciplinary artist and experimental music composer Mark Fell, one half of seminal glitch and minimal electronics duo snd, has been making music that is intriguing and challenging, though not what one would immediately describe as "danceable," for nearly 20 years now. He plays Moscow at Dewar's Powerhouse.

Mercury Prize-Winning Young Fathers Hits Moscow

Fans of Young Fathers, the rap, soul and dub-infused pop trio from Edinburgh, will finally get to see the group play its first shows in Russia.

Drone Pioneer Dylan Carlson Heads to Moscow

Dylan Carlson is widely credited as pioneering the sub-genre of heavy metal known as drone metal, in which heaviness is achieved through the use of sustained or repeated notes and low frequencies.

St. Petersburg Noise-Pop Quintet Readies Debut

Five years after the release of "Happy Songs for Happy Zombies," Pinkshinyultrablast's first EP, the Russian shoegaze/dream-pop band will finally release its debut album, "Everything Else Matters," on Monday.

Russian Avant-Garde Musicians AWOTT Bring 'Pure, Childish Fun'

One would be forgiven for assuming that Russian avant-garde music has faded away in recent years, but in dank basements out of the public eye, a diverse and thriving scene continues in Moscow.

Tallinn Lo-Fi Chanteuse Maria Minerva Comes to Moscow

Estonian avant-pop musician Maria Juur, better known as Maria Minerva, made her name releasing introspective lo-fi music recorded on her computer in her bedroom and paired with sensual music videos that look like the 1990s MTV put through a kaleidoscope, but the musician is still dealing with her rapid rise from obscurity.

Rock Band Swans Brings Visceral Show to Russia

At 60 years old, Michael Gira, the frontman of New York experimental rock band Swans, is showing no signs of slowing down.

Scottish Hip-Hop Trio to Play First Moscow Show

Scottish alternative hip-hop trio Young Fathers is heading to Moscow for a concert fresh off their Mercury Prize win for best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Veteran Cyberpunk Composer Stuart Argabright Comes to Moscow

Music industry veteran Stuart Argabright, who played a part in almost all the new styles that came out of New York's fertile music underground of the 1980s, brings one of his incarnations — cyberpunk techno group Black Rain — to Moscow for a concert on Sunday.

Alternative Miss World to Open Gorky Ice Rink

There is no snow on the ground let alone ice, but Gorky Park opens its enormous ice rink Friday with a grand show.

Charlemagne Palestine: Between Minimal and Maximal

The composer Charlemagne Palestine, known for his repetitive drone pieces of extreme length and physicality performed on church organs, bells and piano, made his name as part of New York's downtown music scene in the late '60s and '70s, which distinguished itself from uptown's more conventional classical music. It included composers like La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, John Cale, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, a group that would later be known as the minimalists — a term that Palestine abhors.

Syrian Wedding Singer Headlines Electro Music Festival

Moscow’s best nightclub Arma 17 may have closed its doors but fans can rejoice this weekend as the team behind the nightclub are putting on “Outline,” a two-day festival on a man-made island on the Moskva River.

'Poor But Sexy' Explains Cultural Divide in Europe

Polish journalist Agata Pyzik's book "Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West" takes a half academic, half journalistic look at punk and youth subcultures and artistic movements of the Cold War period, attempting to explain the political and cultural polarizations dividing Eastern Europe today.

Director Gabe Polsky Returns to His Roots With 'Red Army'

IDM Innovators Plaid Headline Selector Gig at Strelka

Electronic music veterans Plaid take to the stage last at Strelka Institute this Friday as a trio of London acts play a British Council event bringing the best of U.K. music to Russia.

Queer Artists to Share Stage in Russian Concerts

"The point of playing music is to give and never be afraid to take it too far," said Jamie Stewart, musician and songwriter from Xiu Xiu, who took time off from the band's European tour to speak with The Moscow Times ahead of their Russian concerts with Psychic TV in Moscow on May 30 and St. Petersburg on June 1.

Beat Film Festival Celebrates 5th Anniversary

"Do you want to know how to write a song? Songwriting is about counterpoint. Counterpoint is the key. Putting two disparate images beside each other and seeing which way the sparks fly." So says musician Nick Cave in the film "20,000 Days on Earth," which opens the Beat Film Festival on May 26.

Jozef Van Wissem's Compositions Bring Lute Into 21st Century

Brooklyn-based musician and minimalist composer Jozef van Wissem, the winner of last year's Soundtrack Award at Cannes who will play for Moscow audiences on May 17, has always been an oddity in the circles he has played in. A towering figure always dressed in black, he looks more like a heavy metal guitarist, and while surrounding himself with avant-garde musicians, he wields a medieval lute as his instrument of choice.

Garage Encourages Spontaneity and Engagement with 'Do It'

A young woman attempting to pull out a tablecloth from a dining table, littering the floor with broken tableware in the process, a naked and blindfolded lady guided by a remote-controlled tank mounted on her head wandering the gallery and the students of Strelka Institute performing an interpretive dance based on behavioral data gathered in a Moscow suburb were just some scenes at the Garage Museum for Contemporary Culture at the opening of "Do It" over the Labor Day holidays.

Conductorless Orchestra 'Persimfans' Sees Contemporary Revival

Pervy Simfonichesky Ansambl Bez Dirizhyora — The First Conductorless Symphonic Ensemble, or Persimfans — was the main orchestra in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century. Founded by violin soloist Lev Tseitlin in 1922, the group of up to 150 musicians played regularly until their last concert in 1933 — but they never had a conductor.

Arma 17 Closing After 6-Year Run

This weekend sees Arma 17, Moscow's best-known electronic music venue, famous for its all-night parties and progressive musical tastes, open its doors for the last time.

Greenaway's New Exhibit Dramatizes Russian Avant-Garde

The Soviet Union in early 20th century, a time of social and political upheaval, was also an artistic utopia, and saw the interplay of suprematism, constructivism and futurism — separate but connected art movements.

New Venue to Fill Niche Amid Concert Spaces

The latest addition to Moscow's live music scene, the Philharmonic of New Musical Arts, or FINOMI, aims to fill a longstanding gap in Moscow's music scene when it opens on Saturday. With its broad roster of neoclassical and modern classical composers, piano music and chamber music sitting alongside post-rock, ambient and minimalist composers, multi-instrumentalists and electronic music composers, the venue hopes to bridge the gap between traditional classical venues and modern clubs.


Today's Paper