gultskra artikler: abtu/anet

Gultskra Artikler is the throat-tangling moniker of one Alexey Devyanin, and Abtu/Anet has been excavated from the dusty Miasmah archives for a long-overdue reissue. Not that it ever had a proper release; the astute followers among you might have managed to track down the very rare Abtu, which appeared back in 2007 on limited 3" CD-R, but its companion EP Anet never reached the shelves and seemed destined to permanent unavailability. Devyanin's complex, surreal world was explored to wide acclaim on the '07 album Kasha Iz Topora, and thematically, Abtu/Anet feels like a continuation of that record. Devyanin's deeply original fusion of Radiophonicera electronics, musique concrète, early European folk music and 1920s film scores is highlighted far further here, and somehow the record sounds more relevant now than ever. In an era where nostalgia is musical currency, Devyanin's Vaseline-smudged visions are refreshingly free of kitsch and YouTube-era restlessness. He retains a deeply Eastern European, near-theatrical focus in his work that is as intricate as it is unnerving, and he manages to keep the nostalgia to a specific (and unfamiliar) area of the world. For most of us, the album feels like a lonely journey in the light of a half-moon, with crumbling, curled branches glancing off our ragged clothes. Frightening and unrepentant yet deeply compelling, Abtu/Anet should remind you that stories can be told without a single word of dialogue. Limited to 300 copies. Includes a free MP3 download coupon of the album + poster.