Cheburek

History:
The label's founding date can be considered autumn 1999, when Andrey Mukhomorov decided to realize his desire to publish young St. Petersburg electronic musicians. At that time, a mini-festival of electronic and experimental music took place. It turned out there was a lot of such music, very interesting and diverse, but no one dared to publish it. How did the label's work begin? It started with the release of a cassette compilation "Listening at Home", which featured, among others, the then unknown groups Karibasy and Tenzor. The compilation's name already indicated that the label intended to release not so much dance electronics, but music designed for attentive listening.

Following the success of this collection, several more cassette releases followed. Why were releases coming out on cassettes? The release format was chosen not by chance: music recorded by young musicians had to be affordable for listeners. From the released audio cassettes, we would like to note the albums of such projects as Klutch, Cabina/Clutch, the debut album of the Taiga project and a collection of exclusive tracks from the group New Year Toys "Right There".

Was the release of cassettes the only task of the label? Of course not! In parallel with album releases, the label was actively involved in organizing parties and concert performances featuring its musicians. Most of them took place in clubs like "Griboyedov", "Spartak", "Planet-Internet", Red Club.

However, audio cassettes were not the only format for the label's releases. In 2000, having acquired some notoriety, the label began to gradually change its release format: the first and only CD-R collection in this format appeared - "City Exit". It featured, besides New Year Toys, Tenzor and Taiga, works of famous St. Petersburg DJs Lena Popova and DJ Slon, as well as the now-known projects NetSlov and Igor Vdovin. Following this, Cheburec released debut albums of St. Petersburg projects Lonyx and Vesna.

Such active results of the label's work reached the West. In 2001, thanks to the active participation of Cheburec and the group New Year Toys, the Russian electronic music collection "RU.Electronic" was released on the English label LO Recordings. This compilation, in addition to Cheburec musicians, also included tracks by Fizzarum and Solar X. The disc received enthusiastic reviews in English, German and Japanese press, clearly marking another direction of Cheburec label activity: promoting Russian electronic music in the West.

In the same 2001, releases began to come out in CD format: the first was the debut album of the Bristol duo Stoloff & Hopkinson. For the first time in Russian practice, a Russian label released an album of a Western group in Russia before the musicians' own homeland. And we're talking about relevant music, not marginal experiments.

The next CD release was the collection "City Exit Two" - a panorama of modern experimental Russian electronics from the Cheburec Records perspective. A skillful combination of sound innovation and melodicism, all styles from noise to ambient, from post-rock and IDM to Tenzor's stylistically indefinable remix of the New Year Toys hit Wienn, musicians from Severodvinsk, Boston, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Bristol - all of this was united in a single compilation that received a lot of positive reviews.

In February 2002, Cheburec Records released a Russian re-release of the New Year Toys album "Reframing". Previously it was released on the English label Pause_2 Rec, and due to its price was only available to Western listeners. Now it's licensed, supplemented with remixes from PCP, Klutch and Tenzor and released in Russia, becoming available to Russian music lovers. Seeing the success of the disc, Cheburec label announced its intention to re-release in Russia a number of works by Russian musicians that made a splash in the West.

Another 2002 release was a new album by the Klutch project "8 Bit Freehand Beat". Perhaps this is the brightest event in Russian experimental electronics in the last decade. For the first time in Russia, an album is released whose tracks not only charted in European and British publications, but also influenced British musical mainstream: the Ministry magazine included a track from this album in a compilation of music that influenced the creators of a new album by British dance mainstream star dj Sasha.

But don't think the label abandoned its concert activities! In parallel with the release of CDs, Cheburec continued to organize concert activities. The brightest event was the series "Improvisation Music Evenings", which was started in autumn 2001 by New Year Toys, PCP and Tenzor with the active support of the label. The goal of the parties was to explore the improvisational possibilities of electronic music. Even the first concert, held at the "Moloko" club, showed the potential of this venture: new music was being created before the audience's eyes, unlike traditional improvisation, but no less interesting. Other concerts took place in clubs "Griboyedov", GEZ-21, "Red Club", "Faculty". In addition to New Year Toys, PSP and Tenzor, musicians from the projects Fizzarum, Klutch, Vesna, Alexandroid, Jon Tye participated. "Improvisation Music Evenings" caused a great resonance in the electronic sphere, so the label's nearest plans include publishing their most interesting fragments. Concert performances within the "Evenings..." will also continue - negotiations are currently underway for known jazz musicians to participate in addition to electronic projects.

Besides holding individual performances and parties, the Cheburec label took an active part in major events. In 2000, visitors to the next DJ Parade could listen to modern experimental electronics at the Cheburec stage, where New Year Toys, Fizzarum, Taiga, Tenzor, KLUtCh and Moscow guests Ambidextrous and Novel 23 performed. In summer 2001, as part of Cheburec night at Kazantip, New Year Toys, PCP and DJs Mukhomorov, Hmara and Slon performed. In addition, the Cheburec label is one of the active participants in the festivals "Free Flight" 2 (winter 1999); "Free Flight" 3 (autumn 2000) and "Free Flight" 4 (summer 2001).

Now the label is preparing conceptual parties PLUG and PLAY parties, with guests from Moscow, as well as special guests from England. Not forgetting, of course, about releasing new discs with the most relevant electronic music at the moment.