SemiConductors [Klnd]
A local community of experimenting electronic musicians from
Kaliningrad, Russia. Established around 1991 and self named
«Semiconductors» in 2000, the group consists of about a dozen local
musicians and sound artists. Intensive communication and live
performing resulted in a unique approach to sonic creativity within
Semiconductors.
A straightforward looking name is rather a word play reflecting the
artistic role of the community. The conductor as a person who controls
everything that happens is not a figure of interest here: at least one
half must be free enough to accept any random input. That's why
Semiconductors are, from some point of view, de-personalized. Any
number of artists can effectively collaborate with each other within a
live act. It's a lot like free jazz, based entirely on intuition,
hearing and sense of time.
Semiconductors' hardware ranges from orthodox (but more often
"prepared") guitars, violins, keyboards and trumpets to hand-made
synths and amplified household objects. Among Semiconductors, the gear
is considered a matter of personal choice: anyone is free to bring
anything into the collaborative act. Cirquit-bent toys and vintage
analog synths, GameBoy consoles and PDAs, portable heaters and cardiac
stimulators, electric drills and laptops are very common here.
The most active Semiconductors are:
Andrey KolomyTZev a.k.a. StirliTZ
Dmitri Demidov a.k.a. Poonk
Danil Akimov a.k.a. SwitchOFF
Vadim CHaly a.k.a. PlugOFF
Andrey Gladkov a.k.a. Urri
Sergey Ivanov a.k.a. Johnny
Different combinations of listed artists sometimes appear under
different names. For instance, Johnny & StirliTZ = Sublime X;
StirliTZ, SwitchOFF and PlugOFF = Mood-O-Tronic; Poonk + any other
member + any source of rhythm = PsiloCyBeat, etc
The Semiconductors community is normally open to any form of
collaboration. One of its strongest external connections is
Kaliningrad branch of National Centre for Contemporary Arts which
involved the group into wide range of exciting artistical projects.