Baku: Symphony of Sirens. Sound Experiments in the Soviet AvantGarde

An incredible artefact from ReR, this double-disc release comes housed in a beautifully detailed book, all dedicated to the pioneers of the Russian avant-garde in the early twentieth century. The first disc captures a modern-day reconstruction of Arseni Avraamov's Symphony Of Sirens, a public sound event originally conceived in 1922, made up from factory sirens, military regiments, steam locomotives and choirs, all representing the lively sonic signature of the port city of Baku. In addition to that there are 39 short-form sound pieces, reproduced from original works by the key experimenters of the era, including Dziga Vertov and Sergei Prokofiev. The second disc is probably even better, kicking off with Dziga Vertov's Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony from 1930. This is an original recording by the Man With A Movie Camera director, and it's an epiphany for any fans of early electronic/noise music, featuring painstaking, laborious documents of the clamour heard in mines, factories and furnaces. Further to that, the disc rounds off with a library-like collection of shorter sound works captured around the same time, including recordings from Alexander Mossolov, Leon Trotsky, Boris Pasternak and Dmitri Shostakovitch. The accompanying book is crammed with explanatory text and photographs, making this an invaluable item for anyone with an interest in Soviet-era art and music.