Check out all of the Domus Mixtapes.
Photo by Daniel Perlin.
As a rule these days people don't wake up to the sounds of the jungle, especially if they happen to live in a vast metropolis. Here in Moscow, however, every weekend a strange mix of elephant sounds and old soviet movie themes floods the world, courtesy of the hundred year old zoo nestling in the center of the city. The buzz of voices from the crowd, the street vendors hustling at every chance to sell some cheap plastic toy, blend with the constant crying of children pulling their parents somewhere where someone is selling sweets. I don't really remember the first time I ever visited the zoo: the faded photograph of me sitting on a pony suggests it was somewhere around 6 years of age. But every weekend still I hear those familiar sounds of the animal kingdom like an alarm call.
These sounds then fuse with the sounds of the metro as I go down the escalator, hearing the familiar advertisement and safety announcements. The Moscow metro is either way loud or way too quiet depending on the hour. You are bombarded by the rattling noise of the wheels, the stop announcements, or tinny music from someone's headphones. In the night, however, this underground palace for the people, as it was dreamed by Stalin, is strangely quiet and even tranquil. You could almost imagine a grand ball; women dressed in flowing gowns, men in tuxedos. A hummed lullaby, carrying you home to a constant rhythm.
As I get to my stop, the aural scenery shifts to the drowning sound of bells from the fake church built in the place of a swimming pool, which could have been the Palace of Soviets. Weddings being celebrated above, the clicks and whirrs of cameras mix with the ambient sounds of water and the continuous symphony of traffic jams. Evgenia Nedosekina
Tracklist:
1. Taiga — Arbat / Jenny #1
2. Moa Pillar
3. Robert Akopyan — hybridity (If I told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso-Gertrude Stein)
4. klakes — Mold
5. Kirill Veydash — Doors of Memory/Jenny#2
6. Slow — Lipstick
7. Ol — Eddie
8. Lapti&Nocow — Sirenas part 1/ Daria_Sharygina- Moscowmusic/Jenny # 3
9. Vtgnike — Untitled Juke
10. Varvana Skibina-finamfm/Nocow — Look No Hands
11. klakes — wall
12. Wols — Moonstomp Utopia
13. Pixelord — kiwi dream
14. Daria_Sharygina — Moscow_music(excerpt)/Kirill Veydash-Doors-of-Memory-Soundwalk-MSU-Moscow
15. Stoned Boys — Anger
Evgenia Nedosekina is a trained architect and graduate of Strelka institute for media, architecture and design, where she worked on the theme of physical transformations that occurred in Moscow during the last 20 years. This research was then made into a theatre performance, transmitting the work into a more artistic presentation. Evgenia is also involved in various music projects and works under the name of Jekka. She is currently working on projects concerning public spaces within the city.
This Mixtape was mixed by N-RON.
You are bombarded by the rattling noise of the wheels, the stop announcements, or tinny music from someone's headphones. In the night, however, this underground palace for the people, as it was dreamed by Stalin, is strangely quiet and even tranquil.