OLIGARKH is one of Russia’s very few projects to combine culturally relevant, fashionable music with a folk tradition. This band builds multimedia collages using sound, vision, and intricate language. Together they display multiple facets of a national character: Orthodox chants, Soviet pop songs, and even ‘90s hip-hop interweave.
Oligarkh’s debut album – “Land and Liberty” (Земля и Воля) – was released in late December 2014. It was immediately a hit across social media. The provocative combination of bass music and religious traditions was debated widely. A cherished heritage had been reworked in amazingly novel designs.
These stylistic experiments are just as unique in a live setting. They become a genuinely spiritual experience, inspiring some listeners and devastating others. With the addition of live drums on stage, the generic range extends from fragile, abstract hip-hop to brutal dubstep. The shows are then swathed in video mash–ups of archive footage, documentary film reels, fairytales, and today’s media heroes.
This live experience has been channeled into the newest Oligarkh album, “Anatoliy” (Анатолий). In the words of the Russian press, the complex marriage of old and new sounds has gone from the status of a nationally popular “meme to genuinely good bass music.”
The band took part in TMW 2016, and announced on WOMEX.