The annual Signal festival begins in Nikola-Lenivets

Tomorrow in Nikola-Lenivets, the Electronic Architectural Festival Signal opens. Over the course of four festival days, 200 musicians will perform on seven stages. About a rare event for today with the participation of Western artists tells Igor Gavrilov.

The slogan of this festival is Sentient Matter. Either “reasonable matter”, or “reasonable question”. In any case, even the very fact of the English motto in the Kaluga region is now perceived as a challenge.

The Signal Electronic Architecture Festival has existed since 2017. In the concept of the event, electronic music and architectural projects coexisted, as was conceived by its founder, architect Sergey Fadeev. The festival is adjacent to the festival “Arkhstoyanie” in the summer calendar of open-airs, thus, in this part of the Kaluga region, a point of attraction for music lovers, lovers of adventure, performances and, in general, contemporary art has been created. Some even refer to these events as “Russian Burning Man”. Despite the fact that these seven years have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and a wave of closures and rescheduling of music events, the organizers have managed to maintain the annual format.

Sergei Fadeev and Andrey Morozov, producer of the festival’s music program, seem to be surprised at the viability of their project. Several times over the years, Signal was on the brink of cancellation. They always had Plan B (as well as C and D) for such a case, but each time they managed to keep Plan A. This year, the biggest achievement of the festival is the arrival of foreign artists, although this is not its essence. Among those whom the organizers consider a source of special pride is Daniel Bell, a 56-year-old Californian DJ and producer who stood at the origins of minimal techno. This name may not be well known to all listeners, but experts in DJ culture and electronics researchers are aware of how, back in the first half of the 1990s, this artist developed new musical ideas, listening to Chicago house and the works of Philip Glass and Steve Reich at the same time. Daniel Bell would be a dear guest at any time and in any circumstances, and now, when Western musicians have practically stopped performing in Russia, the value of his visit increases many times over. Also among the festival participants are Italian Ryan Wood, Romanian Piticu, Spaniard Horacio Cruz and a number of foreigners, which makes Signal an unprecedented event for the current concert and festival season.

Andrei Morozov says that the musicians agree to go to Russia because the festival negotiates directly with many of them, bypassing agents who, in the current realities, prefer not to deal with Russia. More precisely, promotional groups, clubs and music communities that have been building these relationships for years are negotiating. This is one of the know-how of big electronic events, including Signal. The general management of the festival entrusts its “sites” to groups of organizers who have their own established audience and long-term relationships with the artists. The overall picture is made up of programs that are built by partners assigned to different scenes. For example, on Signal, the System 108 and Mutabor groups are responsible for the Mobius scene. There will be performances by Piticu and the residents of Kazan Yung Acid, who continue to move forward in their successful international work. On the Rodnya stage, subventions m_division, Werk, HAZE and Nervmusic are announced. On the Prizma stage, they promise “installations by figura fon” to the music of the Italian Alessandro Nero, the Tashkent indie artist named Director of Everything, the groups “DrugDJ”, Lovanda and others. The main stage of the festival is made together with Sila Sveta, which guarantees large-scale lighting solutions. At the same time, it will be opened by Alexey Tegin’s project Phurpa, which works with Buddhist voice practices, rituals from the arsenal of the Bon religion and authentic Tibetan instruments. According to Andrey Morozov, this is the most complex conceptual solution of the festival, but also the most spectacular. Another point of his pride is the Ghosty stage, dedicated to “thoughtful sound and non-dance practices.”

Perhaps, it is in the plane of electronics that the prospect of continuing the relationship between the modern musical culture of Russia and the West lies. DJs do not sing songs, do not make loud statements, usually they are not too politically active, although there are some very sharp remarks in their social networks. Electronic music is below the radar of both domestic bans and big Western companies that make sure that the stars in their area of ​​responsibility do not go anywhere. But until now, raves, like concerts, remain an important way to see your own kind, to feel that you are not alone.