Getting to know Estonian composer Olev Muska’s remarkable electronic music last year, and, more importantly, experiencing it in the context of a live event held in the Tallinn club HALL over the summer, made me aware of the label Glitch Please. That in turn led to me discovering a whole load of sonic creatives on the label’s roster, including Artjom Jurov, a musician and visual artist who goes by three or four nom de guerres at least, one of which – the only one i’ve so far explored – is Oudeis. i haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the Oudeis back catalogue (on Bandcamp there are no fewer than 226 releases, stretching back around 12 years), but some of what i’ve heard has been very arresting indeed. The most striking of them is a two-track EP titled CRUX 1770.
Considering how impactful it is, it’s interesting to see read in Jurov’s notes that the music is a “preliminary concept of a soundtrack for a short film that is in the making”. Considering the extent to which film scores today emanate from an abject abyss, the creative vacuum of which spews out nothing but the most pointless, generic gestures – equal parts bombast, froth and sentimentality – it’s a relief to relate that CRUX 1770 ignores those empty tropes entirely and instead leans hard into an electronic soundworld that’s altogether more authentic and demanding, where instability and complexity are not just prevalent but defining features.
Jurov’s notes go on to say that, “This particular version will face countless edits and changes, so the final result will probably sound completely different.” The two tracks on this EP have exactly the same duration and presumably therefore represent alternate versions of the piece, in which case he’s not kidding – they sound very different indeed. And based on the evidence, that’s absolutely no bad thing.
The first iteration, ‘CRUX 1770’, establishes a snarling, bubbling, looping texture. It treads water for a couple of minutes, taking shape, until a lovely intensification takes place. More focused, seemingly moving inward, tangible sounds protrude outward. It takes on an almost liquid appearance, but as if it’s flash boiling, sizzling and evaporating in response to high temperature or pressure. From this hypnotising sequence, it bubbles and grinds away, possibly now moving downward, always maintaining intensity, arriving at a point with loud fizzing flares at the periphery. Briefly in a calmer region, it intensifies again, surging, throbbing, with a myriad details splashing around, as if everything happening were contained within, colliding against the sides of, some kind of immense fireball (like those super-slo-mo films of nuclear detonations).
The second iteration, ‘CRUX M-45_14_6’, goes harder still. Noise pushes and pulses through a muffled spread of pitch, until loud eruptions take place – already dense and intense within the first 90 seconds. Pitches lurk within the noise (loci of stability amid chaos), whereupon more eruptions create a web of rippling noise, a the effect of which is completely mesmerising. It abruptly clears, simplifies, and stratifies, into bass throb below, waxing and waning abrasion above, caught in a brief, strange kind of stability. Another pitch layer pushes forward, but the whole is by now highly convoluted, though still somewhat stratified (whereas the previous version was more homogeneous) and continuing to swell. In due course it takes on a an electrified quality, as if large amounts of current were flowing through and arcing all around. A new clarification takes place, the bass now purring, but it’s quickly undermined by waves of noise and pulsating surges, the volatility and complexity by this point amazing to behold. Finally, the bass pushes forward but, abruptly, the music terminates.
These are exhilarating versions of what may or may not be the ‘same’ idea. Personally, i prefer the latter of the two; but equally, i’d be very happy indeed if Oudeis decided to make as many more versions of this as he can. Two are not nearly enough.
Released in September 2024, CRUX 1770 is available for free download.
