I am very pleased to have taken a new collection into the archive thanks to Leonid Kotelnikov. It has some beautiful x-ray discs, quite a lot of lathe cuts on other materials, a few Soviet sound letters and some translucent flexi discs made in experimental studios before the war.
The music is mainly Russian, some beautiful and some very strange.
I met Leonid in Russia about seven years ago - pre-COVID, pre-war. He is a performance artist - quite extreme, very interesting
When the war came, he left Russia and now lives the life of a nomad, travelling around Europe, sometimes homeless, sometimes couch surfing.
The tune here is a fragment from a super rare recording of Alla Bayanova singing ‘Cocaine Song’. I believe it was recorded in Latvia in the late 1930s. Even though it is a lament, its perceived decadence and drug reference would have put it beyond the pale in the USSR.
I am drunk with cocaine, with love, with champagne,
I am more charming than vicious mimosa.
I got lost in the gypsy singing
It inspired me in my dreaming
I am a princess in the land of pink,
I sing this hymn everywhere.
With a gentle smile like tuberosa
I call myself ‘Cocaine'
I am a Cocaine princess,
And you are my prince in love.
Even though all this is just an image
Even though it is all just a mirage
I held you as you tuned the guitar,
We were lost in wondrous dreams.
And everything that Coca encouraged me to
Rushes in hell, floats in front of us now
I am a princess in the land of pink,
I sing its hymn everywhere.
And with a gentle smile like tuberosa
I call myself ‘Cocaine’