At the end of 2020 Cold Spring Records released the official debut album “Devalaya” from the Russian collective JAGATH. The band name is taken from Sanskrit and means ‘world’ or ‘universe’. Even if JAGATH doesn’t feel connected with the early Industrial music movement, the album and its global approach both reveal noticeable links like the use of recycled- and hand-crafted ‘instruments’. “Devalaya” is a true fusion between typical Industrial elements like percussion and Ritual elements accentuated by voices and didgeridoo-like sounds. I talked with Gregory Skvortsov about the album and the project.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Let’s start with the beginning; how did JAGATH saw the daylight? Can you introduce the band members and tell us something about the input of each other? And what’s the original goal of the project? 

Gregory: JAGATH never saw daylight, it is always in twilight… It started in 2014, we are urban explorers and we began to dig into construction shafts of a sewer collector nearly 30 meters deep. We found a very interesting reverb, I immediately decided to record something there, but Nils got ahead of me and wrote some music with a friend. It nudged me, and we began to go there and write sound samples, then made several jam sessions. Chaospasm and one of his friends brought ethnic instruments, then Max Wolf appeared with his homemade didgeridoo. We also played a big live show there, with lights, lasers and fire. All this material is still waiting to be released.

The guys wanted to make something more like Ethnic or Psychedelic, but I suppose my goal was to release inner demons, audiolize the feel of Post-Industrial age, ‘unveil life in the abyss’. I don’t really know why my concept won, and the other guys are sabotaging this interview.

Then I finally brought this party to the oil tanks located at an abandoned power station and we started recording material which later became “Devalaya”.

Q: You’re composing your music with hand-crafted instruments while recording in very special locations. This way of working clearly evokes the early spirit of Industrial music! Do you feel connected with the early Industrial music movement and tell us a bit more about this way of working? How does it happen? 

Gregory: We have only some Ethnic instruments and mostly use found objects -junk that lays in the tank like sticks, metal scrap, rocks, bottles, etc. We also make our own things, like a didgeridoo made of plastic sewage pipe (which was broken several times), a strange sounding thing consisting of an IKEA metal bowl and a bearing ball and a gong made of a metal tray. I also like using cheap contact mics, clamping it to everything.

I don’t really think JAGATH is connected with early Industrial music although the spirit still inspires me. Once when I lived in a commune in Saint Petersburg, I found some local junk and made a spring guitar-like thing, then I realized it is like one that FM EINHEIT used.

Q: You last year released your official debut album “Devalaya” which means “Temple”. Tell us a bit more about the writing and eventually concept of this work? How did you create and produce the different tracks of the album? 

Gregory: We were writing it for 5 long years, we have done multiple sessions. Then I just removed everything bad and stitched good parts together. Everything was (and still is) recorded on a single cheap Zoom H1 recorder, so it was hard to clean up the records, but I got a clear picture in mind how it should sound, and it worked. 

Some tracks were augmented with didgeridoo overdubs and smashes recorded in the final stage, like “Agadha” (Abyss). The track “Devalaya” consists of 3 parts -basically 3 different tracks from different sessions.

Our later albums –“Agni” (self-released on Bandcamp), “Inodaya” (upcoming on NEN Records) and “Svapna” (looking for a label) -were much easier for production, they were recorded fully live, because maybe we became more ‘professional’, but they sound not so rich and intense, as for me, though they are different, and that’s good. And the concept always stays the same.

Q: “Devalaya” clearly sounds Industrial, but there also is a Ritual element in the production. What does this Ritual part stands for and what means Ritual music to you? 

Gregory: Industrial Shamanism. We are getting really stoned during the recording process, by the way. It takes a lot of effort to get over the concrete fence in the end, and then get to home, especially during Winter.

Q: You already talked about abandoned industrial locations where you’re composing your music. How did you come to this idea and what’s the importance of such a location and the impact on the music? 

Gregory: Post-Industrial and Post-Cold War abandoned environments always inspired me -around Urals you may find enormously big desolated factories (like Uralmash), hundreds of dismantled nuclear ICBM positions. An abandoned power station and its tanks is one of such places showing power of something huge but eventually unneeded. (Last photos of it, 2020, before snowfall: https://yadi.sk/d/4ctzBoPGYNojeQ )

I recorded the reverb of the oil tank, so we can take it everywhere and play live.

Q: Do you’ve concrete plans to play live? And how would you transpose the sound of JAGATH in front of an audience? What brings the future?

Gregory: We’ve played live several times in Perm and in Saint Petersburg, played at an open-air forest festival Systo and at an abandoned Red Triangle factory in Saint Petersburg: https://youtu.be/okMVGH-kQb8 

We are going to perform at the Perm Wave-festival at a local jentrified factory on April, 24th, and at an abandoned warehouse, later in May, maybe we will even stream this.

I want to play live at huge Industrial locations officially, in front of the public, but I think it is impossible in our lovely totalitarian Russia, where everything must look nice. I hope someday we will play live in Europe in some Industrial museum (like Landschaftspark in Germany) or maybe even in an alive factory. Got some ideas of more electronic sound.

My personal future seems to be much more obscure than it usually is, I don’t have any job right now. And I see no future here in Russia.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

This morning IKEA Ghent (Belgium) was the place to be for bands wanting to know something more on the future of the music business and how to make the best of it. More precisely, the Belgian electronic music label Alfa Matrix was presenting a workshop at IKEA to the musicians behind the bands Llumen, ELM, Psy’Aviah and Mildreda (Diskonnekted), respectively Pieter Coussement, Peter Elm, Yves Schelpe and Jan Dewulf. For the label it’s the first time it has organised a joined workshop with other bands inside Belgium, but it surely won’t be the last.

Side-Line talked with Alfa Matrix’s promo manager Bernard Van Isacker who gave the workshop.

SL: First of all, you also work as an online marketeer during your daytime job?

B: Yes, I’m the online marketeer for a major seed company (number 5 in the world) for whom I develop the social media strategy, and in that role I have been giving several trainings regarding social media tricks in Belgium and in the Netherlands, but also regarding CRM since one doesn’t go without the other. For those who don’t know, CRM stands for customer relationship management and is an approach to managing a company’s interaction with current and potential future customers. We then analyse this data to improve business relationships with customers. But that’s another story.

SL: Why did Alfa Matrix decide to do this workshop?

B: This is not the first time we do this, in the past I have organised a couple of such workshops with Alfa Matrix bands but then more face to face, so one band at the time. I did several in Belgium, in Scandinavia and in Greece (where I had sessions with Siva Six and Virgins O.R. Pigeons).

But the idea to get a few bands together only started a year or 2 ago when I had a very interesting networking diner in Oslo (Norway) where several of the Alfa Matrix bands were joined by such people as John Fryer, Paul Kendall and the Electro Spectre duo. You immediately could sense there was an energy that you don’t often see.

I also know that there is a need for bands to discuss about the topics we talked about today such as marketing, communication and an insight on how the algorithms work for such companies as Spotify, Apple Music and so on.

Anyhow, when I was at an intimate event at the Club 52 here in Belgium a few weeks ago, I talked with the people behind Llumen, Psy’Aviah and Mildreda who were playing there and suggested them a joined workshop in the near future. They all agreed, so a few days later we decided upon a precise date, a location and I prepped the workshop itself. In the meantime I had invited a few other bands over too, so that’s how Peter (ELM) also joined us, the others will be joining me during a future workshop that fits their agenda.

I also plan a few of these workshops outside Belgium with the next one being in Oslo where Kant Kino, Essence Of Mind and a few other acts will be joining.

SL: What was the purpose of this meeting?

B: It’s always good to meet the artists from time to time, so that is already a good plus. But the main purpose of the workshop is to help the participating bands with their communication, their online presence, and explain them a few things which the general public and most bands are not aware of (because often their label doesn’t know either). Today for instance I presented them my future vision on the (online) press and club scene.

SL: And that is?

B: That’s classified, but it’s safe to say that my vision is quite radical. Back in the days (let’s say 10 years ago) people told me I was mad to start investing in digital distribution at such a fast pace. 10 years late I’m not so mad anymore so it seems, at least what that aspect is considered :). You have to know that I talk a lot with people from inside the business (digital distributors, major promo companies, …) to know the ins and outs of what happens and what is going to happen. I also have a few trusted people from within the scene (distributors, musicians such as Yves Schelpe, other label owners) with whom I discuss quite often about what directions the music industry might take. From that input and my own knowledge and intuition I distill a vision for Alfa Matrix which I then share with my 2 other colleagues in the label.

SL: How did you come up with the idea to do this workshop at IKEA?

B: I’m an IKEA addict basically… :). Ghent is in the centre of the Belgian cities where our bands come from, so it was kinda logical to choose this city as the central place. And since it isn’t the first time I do meetings at IKEA, it kinda was logical to keep it here. Plenty of coffee and plenty of space, I only asked the bands to be here at 10 AM so we were sure to have the space we wanted.

SL: What came out of this workshop?

B: Well, besides the content of my presentation which gave these bands a nice insight in how the business works these days, there were also a few new and exiting things that have come out of our interaction, which we hope to materialise soon. Add to this that a few really nice surprises appeared which opened opportunities. I personally strongly believe in the 1+1=3 setting if you have people sit together who are all very driven by the desire to learn. That was the case here.

SL: Do you plan to publish this guide on the net?

B: No, nice try though! This presentation and its explanation is strictly restricted to the bands signed to Alfa Matrix and is not for external distribution. In the past I have worked for labels on consultancy basis giving them ‘intel’ on a few things, but that’s only because they contracted me for this. Since I’m now only busy with Alfa Matrix, it will remain for the Alfa Matrix eyes only :).

SL: Can we expect some more of these workshops taking place in Belgium?

B: Sure, we plan one in Brussels as well in the near future, probably at IKEA Zaventem :). Next we also plan one in the Netherlands and in Mexico where we also have a few bands under contract.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com