Polaroid Concert by ObukhovAUDIOongroove

Living in deep Russian Siberia, in his teens, even prior to his start in electronic music, Alexander Obukhov practiced DJ’ing at local school events. He studied hardware skills assembling FM-transmitters, LF PA’s, tape players and various makeshift stage-light hardware. He also crafted some acoustic guitars and electric pick-ups for them as well. In 1992 Alex discovered that he had an interest in Electronic Music and as an artist was inspired by Luna 44 (Moon 44). This was easily the most notable Russian radio-broadcast dedicated to instrumental and electronic music from outside the Russian borders at the time. Back in the early 1990s Luna 44 turned out to become a real breach in the collapsing Iron Curtain; a breach allowing people to take a look at the world around, through the prism of worldwide electronic music. Surely you know that feeling when the sound-worlds of Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, and other American and European artists drastically change your views on the Art and Music? This was the case with Alex.

Being heavily influenced with Berlin-school sounds, Alex did his first musical experiments using his self-built synthesizers, LF-generators and drum-machine. These instruments were made of spare parts collected at local scrap-heaps. His first home-studio album entitled “Warning” appeared in 1994. In the course of the next two years, 1995-1996, he kept up his bedroom electronic explorations using Soviet synths. These instruments were the only available hardware around at this time.

In 1997 Alexander was hired as art director, arranger and sound-engineer at a local culture center. He also played, as a drummer, in a local instrumental band. At that time, he set up his first pro-equipped studio for electronic music named «Hot Tape». This was active until 2011. During this period, he composed and recorded thirty albums of his own music, from new-age experiments and ambient sounds to Berlin school inspired music.

When «Hot Tape» was over, Alex moved to start the ObukhovAUDIO studio, to continue making electronic music. This was mostly in the Berlin-school direction. Berlin-school sequencing is the lodestar that inspires him. Through continual, spontaneous, experimentation, he occasionally creates sequencing improvisations like «Polaroid Concert». This was the title-track that was created in the studio back in 1999, in just one take, inspired by classic 70’s Tangerine Dream. The more up-tempo and dynamic driving tracks he creates like, «Palace For You» reminds us of the classic moods in Klaus Schulze’s «Are You Sequenced?».

Today, Alexander Obukhov lives amidst mounds of endless woods, in the snow-laden landscapes of vast Siberia. He continues to compose and record his electronic music in the ObukhovAUDIO studio. Berlin-school style music and vintage sound-traditions of the pioneers of electronic sequencing remain his main inspiration and the preferable creative direction for the foreseeable future.