Severnii’s grave

Another musician who passed away at an early age is Arkadii Severnii (aka as Arkadii Zvezdin – 1939-1980) – an influential performer within what has become known as the russkii shanson tradition (Uli Hufen wrote a good book on russkii shanson with a long chapter on Severnyi – my mini review of the book is on…Continue reading Severnii’s grave

Gorsheniov’s grave

While visiting Tsoi’s grave I also passed the grave of the recently deceased Mikhail “Gorshok” Gorsheniov (1973–2013) who passed away a month before my visit to the cemetery. He was the vocalist of the St. Petersburg based band “Korol’ i Shut”, one of the big Post-Soviet bands. Taken with my D700 and Nikon 20-35mm 2.8.

Tsoi’s grave

One of the disadvantages of doing research on Post-Soviet popular music (as well as with musicians in general) is that a lot of central musicians died (and still die) at a young age – like Viktor Tsoi (1962-1990), the vocalist of the Soviet group Kino. Tsoi, however, remains in the memory of his fans –…Continue reading Tsoi’s grave

Andrei Ivanov

A picture of my good friend and fellow musician Andrei taken in a St. Petersburg cafe not far from Moskovskii Vokzal. The picture itself is taken in 2009 with my favorite portrait lens (Tamron 90mm f2.8) on my D700 with an off-camera flash firing through a soft box (Lumiquest SoftBox III). For another picture of…Continue reading Andrei Ivanov

Vigdal’s Tonereise

In my master’s thesis Signifyin’ Vigdal: Aspects of the Ragnar Vigdal tradition and the revival of Norwegian vocal folk music which I finished in 2003 my main point of focus was the Ragnar Vigdal tradition and how vocalists today interpret him (his style is known for it’s nasal timbre, ornamentals and special tonality). As a…Continue reading Vigdal’s Tonereise

back in piter

I’m back in Piter for the year-end-vacation after a break of a year and a half and places, as always, change. Some changes are induced by collective destruction – the lack of snow in St. Petersburg now is probably to some extent due to global warming. However, other changes have direct causes. What really knocked…Continue reading back in piter

digital fieldwork

i have been considering doing interviews over the computer, but have been looking for a good (and simple) program to use with skype and ichat. a friend recommended wiretap pro which i have been testing during the last days. not only can it be used to tape conversations (both what you say and the one…Continue reading digital fieldwork