New Composers

From Unearthing The Music

New Composers

The New Composers were founded in 1983 in Leningrad by Valery Alakhov and Igor Verichev. From the very beginning, their output combined sound materials from everyday life, Soviet mass culture and the media, resulting in a mix of radio broadcasts, propaganda films and TV programmes. Because of the similarities of their creative methods and those of the New Artists group, Timur Novikov suggested that the duo should call itself the New Composers. In 1987, together with Sergey Kuryokhin, they recorded the album ‘Insect Culture’, an exceptional amalgamation of Alakhov's and Verichev's plunderphonic creative methods with those of Kuryokhin. Saxophonist Igor Butman was also invited to contribute his improvisation techniques to the project. In the same year, an audio cassette under the title ‘Start’ was released, containing material recorded with members of Kino − Andrey Krisanov, Georgy Guryanov and Yuri Kasparyan. In 1987 the New Composers embarked on organizing some of the first rave parties, taking place in squats. They also created the Science Fiction Club located in the Leningrad Planetarium, which quickly became famous for its dance parties. That year Brian Eno visited the club, resulting in Verichev's and Alakhov's invitation to Great Britain, where they recorded a single called ‘Sputnik of Life’. They have recorded several dozen albums to date.

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