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Stanislav Vdovin
Stanislav Vdovin discography | December24 / December Drone


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December24 / December Drone /
CDr album + digital single, Rat Hole, Occasion, 2008 – 2009

Clear frosty mornings, short and quiet days, evenings with 4 pm sunsets, and long, numb nights. It is about watching the course of time through dusty window pane, staying warm and comfortable.

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Stephen Fruitman, sonomu.net

«The date December 24 does not have the same connotation in Russian society as it does in the West. Here, it is Christmas Eve. In Russia, it is just another wintry day, with Orthodox Christmas still two weeks away. Thus the idea that this recording has anything to do with the Nativity Feast must be dismissed from the mind.

Stanislav Vdovin of Nizhny Novgorod is a composer interested in interweaving digital technology and the natural environment. While the pulses reverberating throughout the four pieces — intended to conjure up morning, day, evening and night, respectively — are certainly as artificial as it gets, they are discreet metronomics marking the time that is passing as the sun sheds its pale light in its brief journey across the northern horizon.

The December day Vdovin soundtracks is a quiet but not uneventful one. Apparently much of the “natural” ambience he succeeds in capturing is actually the result of “micro sampling” old Soviet vinyl, and a close listening does indeed detect the grind of a needle ploughing through old grooves. However, in the hands of Vdovin, it merges into the slowly evolving landscape as naturally as the snow settles on the grass. By “Evening”, the sound quietly shudders, as if having been outside in the cold too long.

Morning, day and evening all pass apace (though not hastily), in stark contrast to “Night”, which stretches over nearly half an hour. These durations make a further connection between the concept and the world in which it was created: darkness dominates the season at these latitudes. While the previous tracks were hardly romping, “Night” is more sombre, beginning quite warmly before higher, sharper pitches punctuate the soundscape, like glittering stars against the black sky.

Listeners enamoured of the quartet of albums Wolfgang Voigt released as Gas will find an elegant, kindred spirit in Vdovin.»




Textura

«December24 features four tracks, each one named for a specific time of day, and the only info provided credits Vdovin with “music” (and Taylor Deupree with mastering). With melody downplayed, atmosphere, texture, and pulse become the material's primary focus, rendering the music itself a deeply textured blend of ambient and minimal techno.

“December Morning” sets the scene with seven minutes of atmospheric minimal techno that pairs a rubbery kick drum pattern with granular, glutinous textures. As the album moves towards darkness, the stylistic kinship between Vdovin and Wolfgang Voigt's Gas become ever more apparent, the difference being the more epic aura that has come to be built up around the Gas project. A sense of restlessness and urgency animates “December Evening” before the album's most immersive escapade, the twenty-five-minute “December Night”, appears.

In its opening minutes, whispering tones lend the piece a mood of twilight and melancholy, until the piece abruptly stops after five minutes. A minute of silence ensues, after which December24 plunges deeply into a vaporous ambient drone bath of hiss, soft clicks, and, most prominently, an unrelenting central waver that slowly swells in intensity for twelve minutes before collapsing into the arms of an agitated melody. The drone swells again, this time the high-pitched tone augmented by a low-pitched, cello-like mass. The album's best experienced via headphones as doing so enables one to better appreciate the music's subtle and gradual shifts. It may be minimal to some degree, but it's hardly static.»




Slide, Sound Proector

«Stanislav Vdovin (Unit 21) at his time made a digital release September-October on the German net label Thinner. Some time later — album “November” by Lagunamuch and only now came the continuation “December24” — cd-r-release on the native label Rat Hole situated in Nizhny Novgorod.

The first track “December Morning” is a mixture of micro-techno+ambient sketches, perfect cocktail for sophisticated fans of actual fashion music.

As for the second track “December Day”, well, I can say that it's a well-done techno-track. It could be recorded by some young man living in some Dortmund cozy, warm winter cover, not a slapdash job. At the end of “December Day” the first sounds of twilight coming can be easily heard. Ambient is a little bit hidden in this track, as if under the leaves in a forest.

“December Evening” together with its loops-movements comes nearer, here, at its horizon line. And we can hear the results of Stanislav Vdovin's long-time work. The only thing that's hard for understanding is the role of the first tracks “December Morning” and “December Day”. After “December Evening” they undoubtedly come to the background and become some kind of prelude to the next trip to forms' world. Even according to its concept. Though the content of the music changed very much. Sometimes straight drums due to their frequent usage become boring so that you want to turn it off and listen to the country of stiff waves, eternal snows, faraway and close stars without the leading guide.

The true pearl of theserecords hides in the longest, almost 25-minutes track “December Night”. The breathtaking composition full of emotions and moods starts at the 6th minute. For some reason this record seems to me to have some kind of hypnotic effect reminding of the effect after listening to the albums of Rapoon. Music has the same hypnotic effect. Unfortunately, not for long.»




FdW, Vital Weekly #706

«The music of one Stanislav Vdovin takes you right into minimal land. Not a lot of information to go by. Mastering by Taylor Deupree. On “December 24”, four pieces “morning”, “day”, “evening” and “night” and there is one name that keeps popping up: Gas, Wolfgang Voigt's minimalist ambient bass pump. There is no sense in denying here, as Vdovin does very much the same sort of thing. A bass pushed up with no immediate other frequencies around it, moves around, solely on the dance floor, but there is not much to dance too. Around it are minimal washes of sounds that live on plug-ins, well nourished plug ins. An eerie, minimal music occurs. In the “night” piece, the longest on this release (well over half the release), the bass is absent, and its a ambient glitch piece. Quite nice, but then so was Gas back then (I should play it again, a fine reminder). No surprise here, but done nicely.»




Ãëåá Êàëèíèí, experiment.ru

«Íèæåãîðîäñêèé ìóçûêàíò Ñòàíèñëàâ Âäîâèí, èçâåñòíûé êàê ñîòðóäíè÷åñòâîì ñ îäíèì èç ñàìûõ èíòåðåñíûõ îòå÷åñòâåííûõ ýëåêòðîííûõ ïðîåêòîâ Sleepy Town Manufacture, òàê è ñîëüíûì Unit 21. Àëüáîì December 24 âûïóùåí íà êàðìàííîì ëåéáëå Rat Hole ëèìèòèðîâàíûì òèðàæîì è ïðîäàåòñÿ àâòîðîì ÷åðåç èíòåðíåò, õîòÿ ñàéò ãîðüêîâñêîãî ìóçèçäàòà ëàêîíè÷íî ñîîáùàåò î íåâîçìîæíîñòè óñòàíîâèòü ñîåäèíåíèå ñ áàçîé. Íà àëüáîìå âñåãî 4 êîìïîçèöèè ïî âðåìåíàì ñóòîê, êàæäàÿ èç êîòîðûõ ïîëíà ïîäâîäíîãî, àíîíèìíî-èíòèìíîãî çâóêà ïîä ìîíîòîííîå ïîñòóêèâàåíèå òåïëîé áî÷êè. Íàèáîëåå ïðîäîëæèòåëüíîé è íàñûùåííîé ñîáûòèÿìè âûäàëàñü íî÷ü — òðåê äëèòñÿ ïî÷òè 25 ìèíóò, íî, óâû, ñëåäóþùèì óòðîì, êàê îáû÷íî, íå âñïîìíèòü óæå íè÷åãî èç ñîííûõ ïóòåøåñòâèé».