Post-Gogol World
March 19, 2022 3:06 PM   Subscribe

 
I am unaffiliated with this project.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 3:09 PM on March 19, 2022 [3 favorites]


When I was walking on the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
I met him there again today
I wish I wish he'd go away
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 3:17 PM on March 19, 2022


Hey, thanks a lot for posting this here!

My project post was a little bit devoid of ... context? links? So here goes:

- The album is now available on all streaming platforms
- We also just released a linocut music video that was done by my friend Alex Fatta (instagram, youtube, prints).

I'm not... too sure what to say? I did mean to add lyrics to the songs so that everyone could follow along. Translating Kharms to English was really fun and (unsurprisingly) difficult. My partner and co-translator Emily Saltz and I kept talking about how much we were leaving behind in the original. It was still a very fun exercise.

My longer term plan is to re-translate the texts into French and do a second volume (same music, but with new vocal tracks). I personally sit between the Ru/Fr/En worlds so this ... makes sense. In a world that certainly does not make any.

Again, thanks a lot. Metafilter is a community that's close to my heart. It's very heartwarming to see this work on the blue. All my love x
posted by vert canard at 3:35 PM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]


I just finished listening to it from start to finish. It's a powerful piece of work.

It's been quite some time since I last felt like that with a literary music project. Usually such works are so idiosyncratic, but here – I was astonished by the sheer sincerity and simplicity of Kharms's texts - and by your presentation of these texts - about how one cannot say anything about this to someone who doesn't know it, and still - looks like there's no context needed, no previous knowledge required, just listen, just absorb the _sound_ of the words.

The texts are so smart and funny, and the presentation, as I mentioned before, is lovely. The different voices, the roles, the narration - it all brings Kharms to life, and there's no better introduction to his literature than this in-your-face presentation.

While people might find the Jazz approach "complicated", I felt it turned the whole thing into a movie-like story; I just couldn't stop listening.

The last piece, "The Trunk", closes the whole thing with, in lack of a better word, some sort of "holiness" of the emptiness, I dunno, I'm not making any sense here, it was just perfect.

Definitely going to give it more listening time in the near future.

Thank you for producing it. Can't wait to hear what you come up with next.
posted by lipsum at 3:51 PM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]


Ken Nordine was an influence, surely?

I love Kharms. "Good people, and they just can't keep it together..."
posted by solarion at 6:53 PM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]


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