HFoT October 21 2022

Interview Staraya derevnya

The never boring Staraya derevnya

The British-Israeli kraut folk collective Staraya derevnya presents me with a serious problem. Trying to review their latest album Boulder Blues, everything I write doesn’t seem to make any sense. It just seems unnecessary to add words to their music. I suspect that it’s because there's an existential depth to their music. It also makes me rethink the whole concept of reviewing music. But why does their music provoke this issue in me? So, I do what I always do, I go at it like a madman and I came up with the following. 

“The music of British-Israeli kraut folk collective Staraya derevnya is, strangely enough, a familiar kind of avant-garde. Avant-garde, as well in philosophy as art, usually comes up with entirely new frameworks people can’t relate to. Usually that’s heavily confusing. But that's also the excitement of it: knowing that there’s a yet unknown perspective to understand reality. It challenges ideas and traditional understanding, also in terms of composing. But Staraya does it in a non-confusing way. It resonates familiarly.”

But I have no idea why.

So I mail Staraya derevnya, curious about what emotions their music evokes and if contingency plays a part in their music. Band member and sound engineer Gosha Shtasel invites me to a video chat and we talk about the meaning of music. Gosha says that there are no meanings in their music. It’s not about messages, it’s not about how you feel and not meant to play a certain kind of feeling. 

“If you want to address a meaning, try to talk around it.” Gosha explains that he doesn’t like to talk about the grand things. He rather talks about Christmas and presents. This is also why Gosha sings in a made up language, although his mother tongue, Russian, can be recognised. The singing is about sounds, the voice is in fact used as an instrument, and this too stresses out that it’s not about messages. And above all, music shouldn't be taken too seriously. 

But when you follow a songwriting course at Berklee, which I did, they really want you to put an emotion in your song. Ask before you start: what emotion do I want to put in my song? And can others hear that emotion? Gosha says about this kind of composing: “When you do it like that, it’s fake, it’s made-up, it’s not real. Our music is more like sharing, about what life is. But not in a direct way. All members have difficult experiences, have their pain, and it’s shared in our music. But in an indirect way. So, it’s there.., but not on purpose and it’s not made up.”

And what about the contingency I think to recognise? How does a track come into existence?

The six members of Staraya derevnya live all over the world. One lives in Mexico, three in Israel and two in London. So, they rarely come together. But when they do, they quickly record a first-take improvisation. Gosha, as sound engineer, takes the material home. A second layer is added with details. That layer is more about complexity and structure. But the music happens at the moment. 

Is it possible to repeat this music on stage? That seems like a difficult task. Gosha assures me that the opposite is true. Their live performances are structured improvisation. They start e.g. with a skeleton baseline and improv is added to that. That improv flows into the first song. A piece of improv follows that song and then the second song follows. They play four structured songs and build around it. Their live performances are also more than music. A live concert happens with art on stage which has the same importance as the music. 

I express my worries about this kind of performance. It seems difficult to me. You have to know your instrument very well, mistakes are possibly everywhere, and you have to play in harmony with others who you only meet briefly while recording a first-take improvisation. “Oh no”, Gosha says, “Improv frees you of stress. There’s only responding to others and that’s liberating.” And I believe him. The look on his face is very convincing.

Originally I wrote that their music reflects “an existential presence of the contingency of life”. A sentence that is pretentious as fuck and what does it mean anyway? That became clear after the conversation with Gosha. But I still think I did grasp a spark of an existential presence in their music. As Gosha said, their music is about sharing, about what life is. And that’s undeniable present in their music.