The club of the disadvantages

A series of lectures of the Moscow electronic musician Andrei Orlov continues in the electronic living room of the Polytechnic Museum , dedicated to the not very widely known music of past decades, which nevertheless deserves close attention (in previous lectures, the Japanese group of Yellow Magic Orchestra and electronics from former Yugoslavia ). The theme of the lecture, which will take place on June 24, are the talented, and sometimes truly brilliant European and American musicians of the line of the 70s and 80s, undeservedly in the shadows of the then world electronic stars. As always, in addition to the review specifically for Colta.ru, Andrei Orlov prepared a mix.

There is something in common between art and sports. For example, both there and there the “first number” gets everything, and the second and even more so the third - in tens, if not hundreds, times less. Also, much depends on the case, only for someone it becomes happy, but for someone-quite the opposite. In today's review, we will talk about musicians, composers, producers, whose legacy objectively corresponds to the highest world quality criteria, but who nevertheless did not receive well -deserved recognition. This is not at all marginals: at one time they showed themselves brightly, they are well aware of those who are specially interested in electronics, but really wide circles of music lovers, these names say almost nothing, unlike, for example, from the same Klaus Schulce, Jean-Michel Zharra, Tangerine Dream , Kraftwerk , Vangelis, and so on. As a rule, these artists have one common story: first a promising start, releases on meajor lablahs, then a change in the conjuncture, public preferences and, as a result, a sharp decline in career. Sometimes the musician is too advanced for his time: the experiment is not evaluated, and then, when his moment finally comes, there is no longer the strength or the opportunity to continue.

Hans Edler , Tonto's Expanding Head Band , Zanov , Tim Blake , Lem , Space Art , Serge Bulot , Harald Grosskopf , Clara Mondshine , Telex are just some of these names. Each of them has its own bright individual style, each has its own fate - sometimes quite successful, sometimes frankly tragic. Of course, there are much more unsuccessful musicians, but within the framework of this review it was necessary to limit their choice by presenting readers to the most interesting underestimated electronics of the late 70s-early 80s from Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Great Britain and the USA.