Art-Tek

What is Art-Tek? Many people are reminded by this name of the well-known pioneer camp on the Black Sea coast, but for most people interested in experimental electronic music in Russia and around the world, Art-Tek is a synonym for mysterious and futuristic electronic music from Russia.

It all began in 1994 when the young Moscow synthesizer prodigy Roman Belavkin released his cassette album under the pseudonym Solar X. This became a starting point in the formation of the Moscow label of avant-garde electronic music Art-Tek, which became one of the few who publishes experimental music created on the territory of the former USSR. Although shortly after the first album Solar X continued his music career mainly on Western labels from the American Defective Rec to the British Worm Interface, the label did not cease to exist. The idea of ​​the Art-Tek label was to create an ideological space for a new generation of young artists creating experimental music.

While the West was swept by a crazy wave of techno, ambient and other styles of electronic music released mainly in Britain and America, Art-Tek remained unnoticed for a long time with its microscopic and underground releases. But in 1997, the Solar X "Xrated'" CD album was re-released at Art-Tek, and some copies made it to the West. This album instantly became a fashionable curiosity among lovers of electronic rarities and major British music magazines such as The Wire, DJ, NME, Magic Feet and others gave the highest marks to this album. In Moscow, the mailbox of Art-Tek was flooded with letters from all over the World: journalists, radio DJs and ordinary listeners from America, Europe and even New Zealand asked to send the musical products of Art-Tek Records.

Unfortunately, many subsequent releases of the label continued to come out only on cassettes. A few years ago, the label represented more of a virtual club of electronic musicians appearing on the territory of the former Soviet Union. These teams and projects gave concerts at successful Art-Tek parties held in Moscow clubs. The number of Art-Tek admirers grew as fast as the talk about the label in the press.

Another milestone in the label's formation came in the summer of 1999, when Yura Murash (one of the members of the t.a.n.d.e.m. group) headed the label together with Roman (Solar X). The first jointly released release was the "Artifacts" compilation, which featured 12 compositions by artists from all over the former USSR. In addition to Solar X, names like DJ Compass-Vrubel, Fizzarum, Novel23 and J-Toonz certainly became the headliners of the compilation. By the time of its release, these artists had managed to release their music in Russia, USA, Britain and Germany, and their names had already become familiar to some Western specialists. But even more interesting was the music of the rest, at that time still little-known artists. The compilation became the subject of many discussions on the Internet, and some listeners even called it the best compilation of 1999, daring to oppose it to the products of such masters of experimental electronics as Warp and Rephlex, and world-renowned British music publications such as The Wax, Muzik, X-Fade and others published very positive reviews of the compilation.

The subsequent successful releases of Lazyfish "Vortex", EU "EU_Soft", which are currently being sold successfully around the world, once again confirmed that Russia has finally produced an experimental electronic scene worthy of worldwide attention. Given the growing interest in Russian electronic music, the large list of artists and upcoming unreleased albums, uncompromising quality and taste, the future of Art-Tek Records causes optimism among many.