EXOTICA vs INTEGRA

Open letter from the President of the Exotica Association, Andrey Borisov, regarding the real situation with the upcoming festival on Mount Akhun. Dear gentlemen journalists, artists, producers, and music lovers! The reason for this letter was the numerous questions that familiar and unfamiliar people have been asking me too often lately about the Integra festival, with which, for a number of reasons (which will be discussed below), their minds associate the activities of Exotica. In order to prevent anyone from forming a distorted understanding of the events, I am forced to officially declare that I, personally, and the Exotica Association, founded by me 12 years ago, have absolutely no relation to the scam called the 1st international electronic music festival Integra 2003! Furthermore, not only did I have no interest in this strange amateur project before, but now, after the publication in the magazine 'Do Not Sleep,' where not only the Exotica label is mentioned in connection with the festival on Mount Akhun, but also my honest name, I was forced to investigate the ongoing deception that everyone sees. As you understand, visiting the website www.integramusic.ru, as well as contacting some of the artists listed in the program, did not take much time but significantly clarified the situation. As a result, some very interesting facts came to light, which are very easy to verify with a phone and a computer with internet access. So, what was revealed as a result of the most superficial analysis? The first and most important thing is the foreign headliners and Russian artists. The heavily promoted The Chemical Brothers have no idea about the festival or Mount Akhun. But this is a common situation, as in-demand and relatively expensive stars like Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons are usually not responsible for such matters — typically, the decision is made by the collective's manager. I hope that the organizers of the Sochi event negotiated with them. The artist listed in the program, Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin, also has no intention of going to Sochi; moreover, he is performing in completely different places from August 15 to 17. This was known to the organizers a month ago! The situation with the previously listed headliners, German artist Thomas Brinkmann and Englishman Lee Coombs, is also interesting — for unclear reasons, the organizers of the event recently canceled their appearances in Sochi. Booking foreign artists is not an easy task: mistakes, inconsistencies, cancellations, and reschedulings happen even to the most experienced promoters, but why lie shamelessly! After all, it turns out that the foreign artists will not be participating in the 1st 'international' festival! The situation is not much better with the domestic bands: Second Hand Band learned about their participation in this dubious event only when they saw an advertisement in the magazine 'Om.' No negotiations were conducted with them. Bigudi, Ryaba Mutant, Fractal Heads, and Los Chikatilos declined to participate in the festival. I currently do not know the situation with other artists, but I can guess! The second and equally important aspect is the organizers. Who are they, and how competent are they? It turned out that among the members of the festival organizing committee, along with unfamiliar individuals and organizations, are two of my former employees: former label manager of Exotica Nina Livanova, whom we parted ways with for several reasons back in February, and former press attache of the association Alina Kluchevskaya, who I dismissed in June for inadequacy and professional unsuitability. When I approached Nina for explanations, she told me that she, disillusioned with the partners and disagreeing with their methods of doing business, left the project at the end of July. This further alarmed me, as during our two and a half years of working together, Nina, who had been my closest assistant all this time, had learned a lot and had become a quite professional executive producer, capable of successfully addressing organizational issues of festival scale, if not ideological or financial ones. The situation is more than strange: on the eve of the festival, the only person in the organizing committee whose competence and organizational skills are beyond doubt leaves. Who, then, is in charge of the 1st international electronic music festival Integra? Allow me to introduce you to: - 'Group 62' — a certain company involved in web design, and perhaps quite professional in that regard, but having no connection to electronic music and show business as a whole. - Irina Ilyenkova — a woman of a Balzacian age, originally from Sochi, but unfortunately, completely unknown in musical and showbiz circles of any level. What was she doing before? God only knows, but I can confidently say that individuals of this kind are not only incapable of distinguishing between house and drum'n'bass, but also between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones! - Alina Kluchevskaya — worked as a press attache for me for six months, and for no discernible reason, now occupies Nina Livanova's place in the Integra festival organizing committee. I am certain that a girl who is unable to independently write a coherent press release and has very vague notions about music and concert organization has unnecessarily involved herself in this story. Miracles do not happen, and the sudden excessive ambitions are unlikely to help cope with the real tasks that require at least minimal concert and festival experience! Such a wonderful company of clueless dilettantes is attempting to organize a festival on Mount Akhun, deliberately misleading potential viewers, artists, journalists, and sponsors. The incompetence of such individuals is capable of compromising the reputation of true professionals in the eyes of the public, who are engaged in serious concert and festival projects! Of course, the noise from the scandal with the 1st international electronic music festival Integra will soon subside, but believe me, the aftershock will remain for a long time! And most importantly, the deceived fans of contemporary music, who will receive not the event that was positioned as the first 'civilized Open Air' in Russia, will, at best, never believe in such festivals again and will not attend them! Gentlemen! I urge you once again to be cautious, verify and analyze information, not blindly trust new people with unclear backgrounds, no matter what they promise, or how many golden mountains they offer! In any case, ask a couple of questions, and you will understand whether you are dealing with a competent professional or an arrogant dilettante. Respectfully, Andrey Borisov Moscow, August 7, 2003