Interview by
SelfmadeSatan
Vziel Projet is the main project of Ukrainian musician Alex Ischenkau, the founder of Genetic Trance label. This project is based on melancholic Dark Ambient / Drone with obscure minimalistic melodic structures, Noise music, Industrial, Avant-garde and other various styles of Experimental. Vocals and speech are also in use. Besides, Vziel Projet has a lot of conceptual/lo-bit acts. Music of Vziel Projet was formed under the impression of Noise musicians, Razxca, Avant-garde music of the C20 and Les Légions Noires. Well, this brief introduction was taken from their Discogs page. We have a discussion with Alex and here he told us on everything…
Hello Alex Usiel Ischenkau, how are you lately? Please provide some brief information about yourself; background, characters, everything about you in person?
Hello. I am currently a student of linguistics, and I'm so busy with studying now, that I unfortunately almost do not have time for my creative activities. I was born in Kyiv (Ukraine) and I've been living here till today. I reside in one of the small dwelling massives called Kadetski Hay among the green groves and gorgeous nature. But the largest part of my childhood has passed in Obolon', a large north-western district, at the suburban house. These places, besides, have made a great influence on my future world-view.
I also have a nice collection of books. I prefer reading books about fine arts, though I don't have time and desire to be engaged in collecting them any more. It's worth mentioning that my favourite fiction is "Fandorin Adventures" by B. Akunin. I'm also fond of avant-garde and contemporary authors, among which my favourite and the most favourite one is D. Kharms.
Talking about my musical experience, I've graduated from the music school in piano class.
On your facebook, you mentioned that you’re musical eccentricist and experimentalist, also a linguistic student, also a Discogs nerd. Tell us more in regard with this interesting introduction?
Well, I consider myself to be rather an eccentric person in modern musical scene, and I continue make more and more experiments with information and minds.
Talking about my studying, I've always liked everything connected with language and conversation. I find this topic more than exciting, that's why I've chosen the linguistic faculty. I investigate various related subjects, besides, I've found my joy in learning some specific languages.
In my opinion, Discogs is the best database for audio releases. With the help of this wonderful website I've found a lot of amazing labels and artists, so contribution to it and updating it are important to me in the sense of classifying and mixing all of that material (I've always liked order and classification).
When did you form Vziel Projet and started making/releasing music? How do you describe your project, musically and conceptually?
My first recordings date back to 2002. This was an album of sound poetry called "Алёшины Истории №1" recorded using digital device. It was released on CDr and actually had no promotion. Perhaps I'll make it available for free download or will sell CD copies. In 2003 I made my some records under the influence of Experimental, Industrial and Noise actions like TG, Merzbow and so on using the primitive laptop audio editor. I've burnt it to CDr and it was considered to be lost, till I found it in 2010 and released as GT103 on Genetic Trance net-label (
[GT103] VzielProjet - Unreleased Raw Material 2003). In the following years I've actually lost interest for that, though some recordings were made (they were included on Anti-Sex EP [GT003]). In 2009 I started active recording (using still the same technique). My first net-releases date back to Jan 2010. They were published via Russian music forum Myzuka.ru. The last releases of the canonic Vziel Projet sound are "...of Prolonged Isolation" and "i hate you, GoQQanrls and Iturnoffaz" (under another alias). I've lost that program with which I'd been working since 2003 and it was so rare that I'd not been able to found it anywhere.
Now Vziel Projet is my main project. This project is based on melancholic Dark Ambient / Drone with obscure minimalistic melodic structures, Noise music, Industrial, Avant-garde and other various styles of Experimental. Actually, its ideological conception ranges from release to release. Some of them cover the theme of depression, philosophy, death, some of them have abstract conception, and some are even about Christianity, tributes, etc.
Why did you choose this genre for Vziel Projet?
I feel like exploring the depths of sound, gaining an experience and making something unusual, special, outstanding. Vziel Projet means freedom, it's the way of sharing my feelings, thoughts, concepts with a socium in the way of music, the queen of arts.
Do you have any other projects beside of Vziel Projet? If any, how does it/they different from Vziel Projet?
Oh yes. Actually, I have lots of side-project made to produce some certain genre or positive ideology. For example, under Genetic Trance alias I release Electronics based music (like House, Techno or Ambient), VxZx is my noise/grindcore act and DGQ releases mostly Harsh Noise and AIC concentrates on Noise and Hardcore and has anti-islamic conception.
As we might know Vziel Projet has hundred of releases in its discography. It’s possibly hard but we want you to list out 10 most essential releases from Vziel Projet (as so far)?
At the beginning of October 2011 Vziel Projet has released 63 albums itself. Not much, but not so few. Actually, I could release more if I'd had more time - I've got a lot of unimplemented plans and ideas.
The 1st most valuable releases of VP is, to my mind, "Unreleased Raw Material 2003" as the first model of VP original sound. The next four are "þ", "Anti-Sex", "Mystica" and "...of Prolonged Isolation" - they're standards for me. The 6th one is "Hail Jesu Recurrection" as it perfectly reflects Easter atmosphere and reminds me about my childhood. The 7th is my split with Zarach 'Baal' Tharagh, as I consider him to be one of the most valuable artists of the Underground and having a split with him is an honour for me. The 8th is "A Tribute To Keiji Haino" reflecting the acoustic improvisation side of my art. "Blood On The Floor" is the 9th because it reflects the digital noise side of my music. The 10th valuable release is my split with Razxca "Razxciel" because Razxca is one of the largest influencers on my art and the split is funky overall.
What sort of tools you usually use when it come to make music? What influence you in your compositions?
Well, I use everything that gives sound. Because, as to my conception, any audio can be considered as music. Particularly, I've been using found objects, synthesizers, analog instruments and digitals.
While writing compositions I'm being influenced by some occasional idea, by my personal thoughts, experiences, fruits of my world outlook and sure by other artists' achievements.
You’re also the man behind Genetic Trance netlabel so please talk something about your label? What sorts of material do you mostly considered to be released on Genetic Trance?
The history of Genetic Trance begins in 2005, when I wrote the self-titled album using FL under the leadership of my friend AoS. In summer 2010 I uploaded it to Internet Archive and I wanted to post it to Discogs. As I was a Discogs dummy at that time I got confused with all of that rules, so I didn't know what to type into the "Label" field and I decided to create my own one. In autumn a website and conception were already created.
The main idea of Genetic Trance is the full informational freedom and limitlessness of all art. So GT doesn't set any limits to what should be on it. GT accepts not only audio but any other kind of media.
"Vziel Projet means freedom, it's the way of sharing my
feelings, thoughts, concepts with a socium in the
way of music, the queen of arts" - Alex Usiel Ischenkau
Tell us also about your sublabels; Default Recordings and бидлокор (bydlocore)?
The idea of Default Recordings had some different variants: lo-bit field recordings label or non-music label. The recent one is the label producing documental audio and "non-music" audio (field rec., spoken word, poetry, etc.). Sure it's all relative.
бидлокор is intended to releasing most lo-fi and trash music.
What will you say about Noise scene in Ukraine?
The most valuable Ukraine's noise achievement is, as for me, Quasi Pop Records. In general, Noise music is, unfortunately, poorly spread and recognized in Ukraine.
We reach to the end of this chat. Last messages please?
Thanks a lot for this interview! I hope everything will be OK and I wish all the best for you and your creative activities. Stay independent, cheers!
Information:
http://www.facebook.com/vzielprojet
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Vziel+Projet
http://genetic-trance.jimdo.com
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01. Haunted October 31
