Photographer and producer Wassily Bosch provided photography for the anonymously penned book MOR, an account of Russia’s underground noise scenes in the midst of the authoritarian regime’s war on Ukraine.

Here, he has curated a Wire mix which explores these scenes in more depth.

Of the mix, he writes: “I have always been interested in the moment at which someone’s art collapses into delirium and asocial insanity – or does the opposite, evolving into collective hallucinations. I consider myself lucky to be able to witness times of distress that produce a lot of extreme situations, and at least on a mental level. This sound material is built around us, by which I think I mean some kind of community depicted partially by our label [Nazlo Records].

“[We explore] our past and present lives, our individual perception of the world, and our personal experience of global developments on an intimate level; the reinventing of one’s life and values in new contexts, going through changes and staying (or becoming) yourself – and all the other meaningless words some AI model would tell you (but we don't know how to use it so we do it ourselves).

“In addition to the tracklist below, the mix contains fragments of a lecture/stand up performance, the manifesto of [Russian music documentary] Papa Srapa, made in winter 2021, and also some voices of our countless brothers and sisters exploring the abilities of human mind around the world.”

Tracklist

Fake_trailers “Origami”
Blind Lamb “Untitled”
Psee & Dolphin Hospital “I Don't See Birds”
Barkal & Palmdyed “Transfixion”
DRKBLCK & Dolphin Hospital “Fading Out”
Furrr “Mumble”
イルカ病院 “聖水爆”
Electro-Haram & قلب “в мое сердце”
.Nyctalops. “Vatakrama Kapalbhati”
Lust Customer “Banger”
The Haters & Cisfinitum & Pahom “Chaadayev About The Polywave”
Elena Botts “Богооставленность [Godforsakeness], movement one”
Wassily Bosch “Ghost Frogs”
Papa Srapa “The End / рахиль бонч-бруевич - ноль (excerpt)”

Xenia Benivolski’s review of MOR appears in The Wire 498. Subscribers can read the review in the digital library. Pick up a copy of the issue here.