Let's all organize conspiracies. It's so cool.
It's more exciting than rave!
Subject: Re: Strength through disfigurement
From: "Misha Verbitsky"
Date: 1996/06/30
Message-Id:
References:
Organization: Socialistisches Patienten Kollektiv
Newsgroups: relcom.culture.underground,soc.culture.russian,soc.culture.soviet
I am reposting:
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 02:30:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Peter Werner
To: World Serpent List
Subject: Sergei Kuryokhin, National-Bolsheviks, etc.
Robert Schwarzbauer (schwarz@ping.at) wrote:
> I just found a strange piece of information from the "Antifaschistischen
> Nachrichten 11/96 (1.6.1996)" available on the net and translate it for
> you in rather crude English. It ist about the Duma elections in Russia in
> December 1995: "...Remarkable is the result of the nationalbolshevik
> forces. The two leaders of the Nationalbolshevik Front, the literate
> Eduard Limonow and the journalist Alexander Dugin, did stand in the
> elections in Moscow and St. Petersburg as direct candidates. They had
> contacts to the well-known Russian rock-dat Sergej Koriochin, who did
> give concerts for the National-bolshevic Front and hired the most famous
> representatives of the fascist wing of the darkwave-music scene, David
> Tibet and Douglas Pearce. Dugin made place four out of 18 in St.
> Petersburg, but got the leading amongst youth voters."
>
> Does anybody know about these Moscow/St. Petersburg concerts?
I remember Sergei Kuryokhin 10 years ago from the PBS series "Comrades"
about life in the Soviet Union; one of the five episodes, "All That Jazz",
mainly featured him. An Opal newsletter from around that time mentioned
that he was part of a group called Pop Mechanics, "an amorphous group of
up to possibly 70 people which melds rock, folk, jazz, classical and
'industrial' music". Before perestroika, Kuryokhin was an "unofficial"
musician, excluded from the official musicians union and therefore denied
access to instruments and recording facilities. Since then he's gained
quite a bit of popularity and is probably internationally the best-known
Russian avant-garde musician.
I did an Altavista search for more information about him and turned up
several articles about him in the St. Petersburg Press, an english-language
weekly that's archived online. (One of the articles also included
information about another group, Avia, that sounded interesting, so I kept
it in).
It appears that Kuryokhin unfortunately has become a spokesman for the
National Bolsheviks, who are apparently some sort of third-positionist
breakaway from Zhirnovski's party. I strongly doubt the report that David
Tibet did a benefit for the National Bolsheviks; not only has he repeatedly
emphasized that he's not pro-fascist, he rarely performs live anyway, and
I've never heard of his performing in Russia at all. I take a lot of these
kind of reports from "Anti-Fascist" groups with a grain of salt to begin
with; they've reported falsehoods before (for example, in their campaign
against Type O-Negative, they falsely claimed that the group had played
skinhead festivals in Europe). Some of these groups either think slander
is a useful tactic or they at least broadcast rumors without checking up
on them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From St. Petersburg Press:
NUMBER 85, DECEMBER 20 - 26, 1994
Petersburg's Rock'n'Roll Christmas
If you missed Slovenian band Laibach's single show early this month in
Moscow, you can catch their Russian twins, AVIA at the second Studebaker
Party this Friday.
The first party took place last month, attracting a surprising -- and
uncomfortably large -- audience of almost 1,000 people. To avoid
overcrowding this time there will be a limited supply of tickets sold
in advance from the Rodina theater box-office.
Like Laibach, AVIA deal with totalitarian aesthetics. AVIA's guitar
and saxophone player Alexei Rakhov said, "We are doing mostly the same
thing, though I think Laibach's is a more formal approach. We feel
totalitarianism a bit deeper. Anyway, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union
used to differ a lot."
The three-piece band recently recorded their latest album "Songs About
Nature and Love." They will perform their best-known songs, written
over a nine-year career.
Sadly, the band will not have its notorious, all-female "physical
training group," who once provided a Soviet 1920s-style "agit-prop"
background to the band's tongue-in-cheek anthems and marches.
The all-night Studebaker Party will begin at 11pm, giving you plenty
of time to listen to -- and watch! -- the spectacular show by Auktsion
on the same night.
Finally, do not miss Sergei Kuryokhin's New Year's Eve Piano Night, "I
Am a Little Gray Fir Tree," which will take place at the Oktyabrsky
Concert Hall on Tuesday, December 27.
Kuryokhin's October show, "Looking in Blue Lakes," included a naked
harp player, a gang of leather-clad "sado-masochists," dozens of
actors, musicians, dancers and a herd of small animals. He says his
forthcoming gig will be a "simple piano concert. But I did order a
platoon of soldiers, just in case," he added.
Could this be an absurdist comment on the latest political developments?
We shall see.
NUMBER 86 DECEMBER 27, 1994 - JAN 8, 1995
An Element Of Healthy Stupidity
Sergei Kuryokhin New Year's Piano Night:
"I Am a Little Gray Fir Tree"
When: Tuesday, December 27. 7pm
Where: Oktyabrsky Concert Hall. 6 Ligovsky Prospect.
Nearest Metro: Ploshchad Vosstaniya. On exiting, turn right out
the door and go to the street (Ligovsky Prospect) on the other
side of the metro station. Turn left. It's on the other side,
five minutes walk down.
Cost: 7,000-20,000 roubles
_________________________________________________________________
By Sergey Chernov
Sergei Kuryokhin, Russia's premier performance artist and prize-winning
film composer, will play his traditional New Year concert on Tuesday.
His last New Year's show was a gigantic all-night celebration -- this
time he plans to "recall that once I used to play piano." The concert
will be conducted within the framework of Russian romantic piano
tradition. "What will make it different is that it will be improvised
from the beginning to the end, but it won't be a jazz improvisation,"
said the performer. "I've had enough of making shows," he explained.
"Music is the art of sounds as I remember. I'm sure I've read this in
books." However, he feels his "postmodernist core" could reveal itself
a few minutes before the show starts. After his recent visits to
Moscow Kuryokhin feels that there are more things happening there,
whereas St Petersburg is a quiet city, good for relaxation but lacking
events and places to go to.
He claims that he is not interested in either underground rock club
activities, or academic arts, which he considers "banal." "Probably
the way for St Petersburg is to go even deeper into some kind of
underground, saying, "We were the land of rock, the city of the Silver
Age's poetry," Kuryokhin said. "And to go on going to bed with a tape
by Aquarium playing; or read some old edition of Kuzmin's poetry.
That's stupid." He thinks that it would be equally stupid to ape
Moscow in an attempt to draw money to St Petersburg.
"I'd just like to see the St Petersburg scene become more active and
meaningful," he said. Last week Kuryokhin unveiled the plans of his
agency, Deputat Baltiki (Baltic's Deputy), established with the aim of
introducing "an element of healthy stupidity" into the city's cultural
life. One such plan is to bring Japanese music and arts to St
Petersburg on a large scale. "Japan remains rather enigmatic and not
quite clear," he said. "On one hand, Japanese culture imitates
America, yet it still clings to its tradition."
Kuryokhin is especially enthusiastic about Japan's radical music
trend, represented by such bands as Gerogegigegege and Zeni Geva,
which he calls "new Japanese onanism." "They continue the samurai
tradition, but -- while keeping the ritual part, they substitute
masturbation for hara-kiri," he said.
"They are just great! They play really fast and loudly, they jump
around the stage, and they wank vigorously throughout the whole show."
Quieter parts of the Japanese project include a concert of Japanese
20th century chamber music at the Cappella, a festival of "high-tech"
arts, and a fashion show. Other plans include an exhibition at the
Russian Museum of Jamie Reid, a British painter associated with 1970s
punk style. He designed the Sex Pistols' classic record covers and
posters. Kuryokhin insists that all his projects are realistic and
will be realized during the next year. Meanwhile, a television
documentary, "Sergei Kuryokhin. Music Portrait," based mostly on the
footage filmed in the mid-1980s, will be shown on Sunday, January 1,
at 10pm on TV's Channel 6.
NUMBER 87 JAN 3 - 9, 1995
80s Rock Revolution Lives On
By Sergey Chernov
Some new groups appeared in 1994 on the local scene. They were mostly
off-white imitations of fashionable Western musical styles. Singing in
Russian but drawing their inspiration from foreign springs. Performers
who made waves rather than ripples in St Petersburg's rock'n'roll pool
last year were musicians who first became famous in the Great Russian
Rock Revolution of the 1980s.
Sergei Kuryokhin was definitely Man of the Year. A media favorite --
his every step, utterly innovative or no, was headline material during
the last 12 months. He wrote music for several important films,
including Sergei Solovyev's "Three Sisters," which premiered in October.
For the soundtrack of Dmitry Meskhiyev's "Over the Dark Water,"
Kuryokhin received the newly created national prize "The Green Apple."
The award was intended for young movie-makers. He received it in late
November.
But at 40 does Sergei qualify as young? Well, anyway, the mature prize,
"Nika," (Russia's Oscar) was received by 63-year composer Mikayel
Tariverdiyev, famous for his music for the Soviet super-spy TV series
"Seventeen Moments of Spring," in December. The concept of "young"
Russia perhaps differs from the rest of the world.
And it was Kuryokhin who "finished" the year with a performance on
December 27. Among other things, it featured an avant-garde, virtuoso
percussionist playing on different-sized pieces of metal, a score of
soldiers and two tigers. Alas, there was no partridge in a pear tree
and the tigers were behind the bars.
If even half of his projects for 1995 (described in last week's St
Petersburg Press) come to fruition, he will undoubtedly be next year's
star turn as well.
Starting mid-January you can see him every week on television in his
own program on St Petersburg's Channel 5.
NUMBER 125 [INLINE] SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 1995
Rock star turns his talents to helping extremists
By Sergey Chernov
The radical National Bolshevik Party (NBP) has started its election
campaign in St Petersburg in a typically odd way.
NBP candidate Alexander Dugin has appeared on posters promoting the
last Saturday's "Kuryokhin for Dugin" concert by extravagant pop
composer and show maker Sergei Kuryokhin.
Mr Dugin is the deputy to NBP founder Eduard Limonov, a controversial
writer and a former member of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's shadow cabinet.
The ultra-nationalist leader gave him the Russian FBI chief position
-- a symbolic job that was a product of Mr Zhirinovsky's unusual mind.
Mr Limonov split with Mr Zhirinovsky in September 1993. The third most
prominent NBP leader is Siberian punk rock star Yegor Letov of the
band Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Civil Defense).
Mr Dugin, who lives in Moscow, is yet not registered as a candidate
for the State Duma, but he admits having plans to participate in
elections as a candidate from St Petersburg.
The NBP promotes the extravagant concept that ultra-right and
ultra-left political groups are natural allies who should unite in
order to seize power.
Despite this, the party has split from the much-publicized coalition
they formed with Victor Anpilov of the radical communist party Labor
Russia and Alexander Barkashov of the extreme nationalist Russian
National Unity (RNE).
Mr Dugin said, "In a definite way it was an ephemeral, passing idea...
Both Anpilov and Barkashov have narrow goals, which they are
fulfilling, better or worse is the different question.
"It was an ideological action to show that the most interesting is the
radical position which is even more left-wing than Anpilov's and more
right-wing than Barkashov's," he added.
Pop star Kuryokhin shied away from making direct political statements,
and did not confirm that the concert was the first in a series of
events in support of the NBP candidate as has been reported.
When asked, he replied that Mr Dugin was "just a friend."
"I have lots of friends, and nobody reproached me when I used to mix,
say, with Sobchak," said Kuryokhin, who organized a press conference
for both Mr Limonov and Mr Dugin in St Petersburg in May.
Whatever the quirky avant-garde musician might say about motives and
plans, it seems clear that the concert aimed to make the previously
obscure NBP politician a household name in St Petersburg.
NUMBER 150 MARCH 12 - 18, 1996
Neo-Nazis struggle to make a point
By Sergey Chernov
Local pop musician and showman Sergei Kuryokhin undertook yet another
attempt to attract the city's youth to the extravagant theories and
politics of the National Bolshevik Party at the St Petersburg State
University last Tuesday.
About 300 students gathered for the event called "People Need Soul. A
Metaphysical Show Program, featuring NBP's mystical philosopher and
publisher Alexander Dugin -- the party's candidate for the State Duma
elections in St Petersburg last November.
The viewers seemed to expect something like the last year's show
"Kuryokhin for Dugin," incorporating noisy guitars, flaming crosses,
a male striptease and the party's outrageous political leader Eduard
Limonov, who ran for a Moscow Duma seat. What they got instead was
Kuryokhin's typically elusive speeches delivered in his usual
semi-jocular, absurdist manner.
Alexander Dugin was more to the point, having duly delivered the
outline of the theory of the "Conservative Revolution," that he
promotes. "Communism did not fully satisfy us, on the other hand, we
see that liberal pseudo-democracies lack content and life, so isn't
it clear why people are interested in fascism," he said. The question
is not if fascism will be in Russia or not -- it will be definitely.
The question is what kind of fascism it will be," he added.
According to a recent newspaper survey ("Moskovskiye Novosti," #9,
March 3-10, 1996) neo-Nazi parties failed miserably in the State Duma
elections. The NBP showed especially poor results; Limonov who ran in
Moscow's 194th electoral district gathered only 5,555 votes (1.84%),
while Dugin got 2,493 votes (0.85%) in the 210th district in St
Petersburg.
"Let's all organize conspiracies," urged Kuryokhin repeatedly
throughout the evening. "It's so cool. It's more exciting than rave!"
To: wsd-l@hmc.edu
Organization: Socialistisches Patienten Kollektiv
From: "Somnambulist Cesare"
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 15:41:58 +0400 (MSD)
Subject: Re: Tibet/Douglas concert for Nationalbolsheviks
>From: Robert Schwarzbauer
>I just found a strange piece of information from the "Antifaschistischen
>Nachrichten 11/96 (1.6.1996)" available on the net and translate it for
>you in rather crude English. It ist about the Duma elections in Russia in
>December 1995: "...Remarkable is the result of the nationalbolshevik
>forces. The two leaders of the Nationalbolshevik Front, the literate
>Eduard Limonow and the journalist Alexander Dugin, did stand in the
>elections in Moscow and St. Petersburg as direct candidates. They had
>contacts to the well-known Russian rock-dat Sergej Koriochin, who did
>give concerts for the National-bolshevic Front and hired the most famous
>representatives of the fascist wing of the darkwave-music scene, David
>Tibet and Douglas Pearce. Dugin made place four out of 18 in St.
>Does anybody know about these Moscow/St. Petersburg concerts.
As far as I know, there were no such concerts.
Kurekhin is a famous prankster; he also claims
that his music was a formative influence for Japanese
noise scene and all WSD bands. Well, once on Russian
TV he spend an hour convincing the public that Lenin
was a _mushroom_ and succeeded so much that a lot of
people seriously believed that he thinks so. (Actually
P. K. Dick in Valis and Transmigration of T. A. seemed
to claim that Christ was a mushroom with all seriousness.)
Kurekhin always promises that DIJ and C93 will give concerts
in Russia ``next summer'' and claims to have joint projects with
Douglas P., Steve Stapleton, etc. What would you expect from a
musician who travels around Europe with a rock group consisting of
two hundreds chickens and geese? To be honest to Kurekhin,
he _indeed_ is one of most influental Russian musicians,
and during his stay in _Aquarium_ (1981-86) a very famous
one (Aquarium a Russian pop group with popularity of the
Beatles). The music he does by himself is oftentimes close to
WSD (noise collages in NWW vein).
By the way, from the start of 80-ies, a lot of Kurekhin's
records were available from Leo Music label in England, so
it is potentially possible, though not likely, that Stapleton
and Pierce were aware of his work. I am mighty interested to
learn how much of Kurekhin's wild claims are true.
Misha.
To: wsd-l@hmc.edu
Organization: Socialistisches Patienten Kollektiv
From: "Somnambulist Cesare"
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 16:05:37 +0400 (MSD)
Subject: Re: Tibet/Douglas concert for Nationalbolsheviks
From: SKot Kirkwood
> I've never heard of such a thing, and I doubt the credibility of
>anybody claiming to have "hired" the "most famous representatives of the
>fascist wing of the darkwave-music scene"(??!), claiming this to be David
>Tibet and Douglas Pearce. I don't know much about the National-bolshevic
>Front, but I hightly doubt that either Tibet or Douglas P. would be
>interested in such an overtly political group.
The National--Bolshevic Party is not a political group
at all: it is rather an appendage of a Russian writer
Eduard Limonov (the English translations of
his books are found in almost any American public
library, so you may check him up). A number of
Russian musicians of WSD-ish ilk were close to
this party at times, and Limonov's newspaper
(Limonka; the Russian term for handgrenade)
was publishing gushing reviews of all WSD work.
Limonov's ``party'' is _not_ a party at least because
it has no political influence whatsoever: _not_
a single represented member in any goverment body,
and zero results in all elections the ``party''
participated in (they came last each time).
Not that I support Limonov or his party -- rather I am
curious about folks who claim to like WSD, so living
in Russia I naturally pay attention to these people.
>> And then should Douglas who seems to be very pro-Croation support a known
>> represent of the Serbian cause.
> Hmmm...does it add up?
He refers to Limonov's pro-Serbian position. Limonov
made a trip to Bosna and took active part in the war,
fighting on the Serbian side.
Misha.
Peace implies war.
Power implies war.
Harmony implies war.
Victory implies war.
Glory implies war.
Foundation implies war.
Alas! for the Kingdom wherein all these are at war.
Misha Verbitsky