Novel23 — Architectural Effects

These days, Russia means imprisoned oligarch, war in Chechnya, Vladimir Putin, very rich people, extremely poor people. But there is more to it: Russia has its fair share of talented musicians. Roman Belousov is one of them. He has just released his fourth full-length under his Novel23 alias.

Belousov really started getting interested into music through Depeche Mode. He later discovered the early ‘90’s electronic acts and started making his own sounds at the age of 23 (hence the 23 in is musical alias – oh and roman means novel so there you go: the name of this project explained in a few words). What makes his music peculiar is that he only uses vintages synths. Not the trendy ones, but rather cheap ones, ones that have been forgotten by almost everybody (quite a few of those synths are Russians). Belousov also is a melody lover. Vinatge keys + melody = Kraftwerk. This comparison is not entirely wrong, but Novel23 has an identity of its own.

In the inner CD-sleeve, there is a quote from Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775-1854). Schelling is a very important person in the history of philosophy, although his work is ignored by most. Anti-Cartesian, he influenced Nietzsche, Marx, Heidegger, Kierkegaard and Lacan as well as the German romantics. More importantly, as far as the review of Architectural effects goes, he said “architecture is a frozen music”. What is the meaning of such a sentence? “What is common to both is obviously the element of time; both are sequential arts. In music the art object moves through sequences in time and the listener is fixed; in Architecture, on the other hand, the art object is fixed and the observer must move through sequences in time to experience the Architecture” (http://members.fortunecity.com/nelia5/simplynelia/id8.html). So what kind of houses would correspond to Novel23? Well, if you only look at the artwork, it mixes modern elements with typography and design vaguely inspired from suprematism (Russian avant-garde from the early 1920’s, led by Malevich among others) and Bauhaus.

However, the music is very futuristic (futurism is radically different from both suprematism and Bauhaus). In a way, this is the tension between all those various elements that makes of Architectural effects an album that is really 2003.

There is something naïve about this music, making me think of the dreams of a little child about exploring space and how technology would dramatically improve our lives. In a way, this album is deliciously romantic, a trip down memory lane (futuristic utopias, vintage synths, early electronic pop music…). But Novel23 is not purely a nostalgic affair. The beats are reminiscent of today’s productions, and so is the use of (abrasive or not, depending on the tracks) noise. There is something gothic too on some tracks. Not only in the titles (Gothic vimperg, Medieval ruins), but also in the way the sounds seem to echo in a huge building, a cathedral.

If this music was transformed into a building, its architecture would mix the steel of futurism, the lines of Bauhaus and the gargoyles of gothic churches. It would be surrounded by wild nature as the romantics used to love it. On the roof of the house, the statue of a Russian cosmonaut. It would look damn ugly, but it sounds fucking brilliant.