Ukas
Ukas
Serialising the album The Drunken Fisherman (And Other Stories) by Schall und Stille (@stephan): The debut release inspired by early childhood memories, pirate radio broadcasts, war and climate change among other things. It’s a sonic journey between ambient, electronica, triphop, wave and pop; between Eno, Kraftwerk and Massive Attack. Extended instrumental pieces alternate with atmospheric pop songs, layered voices and lush sonic landscapes, sometimes sublime, sometimes sombre.
Track 1/7: Ukas
In old Russia, the tsar’s decrees were called “Ukas”.
Work on “Ukas” started in February 2022, the day after Putin announced his so-called “Special military operation” against Ukraine.
In retrospect I can’t really remember what made me approach the subject in this way. I think the beginning of ‘Ukas’ was simply an attempt to express my disgust and horror at Putin’s invasion by using mainly sound design and programming; reducing melodic structure to a minimum and trying to set the overall feeling of helplessness and menace to music.
As a German, of course, my family’s history is tied to World War II. When I was a child, I had long conversations with my grandfather about it. I still remember the deep sense of horror he felt over what had happened in Germany. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, he always vehemently claimed that “everyone knew exactly what was coming and what Hitler was up to. All those who say they had no idea are just trying to ease their conscience”. He had been a member of the KPD, the Communist Party of Germany — which Hitler outlawed after coming to power. People like my grandfather were sent to the front lines as cannon fodder once the war had begun. He was lucky: he was captured and survived as a prisoner of war.
(ironically, the KPD was outlawed again after the war, making my grandfather not entitled to reparation payments because he had been member of an illegal party. You can’t imagine things like that…)
His stories left a deep impression on me. Combined with the bullying and violence I experienced at school, they helped shape me into a pacifist and gave me a lifelong mistrust of power-hungry people.
So I think all of that somehow went into “Ukas”.
Part 1, “Arrival” is me trying to paint a picture of slowly mounting tensions (Ukraine war didn’t start in February 2022, it had been brewing long before that) leading to something sinister.
Part 2, “Old Glory” was inspired by Putin’s drive to bring Russia back to its former glory, which I think is why so many people are still backing him. National pride is a dangerous thing, in Germany as well as in Russia. It’s meant to sound like something classical, fallen out of time and existing in a space where it doesn’t belong; hence the synthesized classical instruments.
Part 3, “Disappear”, with its mechanical and electronic whirring, pumping and assorted FM craziness is about decades of humanitarian progress coming apart before all of our eyes because some crazy power hungry warlords getting their will.
Part 4, “Remembrance” begun with me thinking about my grandpa and the stories he told me, and
Part 5, “Answer Me” is kind of looking into the future and trying to figure out how it all is going to end. Which of course I don’t know. But it ends with a quote from Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s “The Dead Souls” – a man whose works reflected the deep contradictions of the Russian soul: the absurdity and tragedy of its bureaucracy, the quiet despair beneath everyday life, and the strange blend of cruelty and longing that still seems relevant today.
Back in the early 2000s my ex-girlfriend was part of a troupe performing an experimental stage version of “The Dead Souls” – which completely fascinated and enthralled me back at the time.
When I was just finishing “Ukas”, I came upon a free audiobook of “Dead Souls” on LibriVox, read by Anna Simon. I listened to it and had this certain eerie feeling that you get when you realize, something is fitting absolutely perfectly, as if the one was made for the other.
Of course I tried to contact Anna, but unfortunately she never answered. The terms and conditions of LibriVox allow me to use the recorded audio anyway (the audiobook is in the public domain), so that’s what I did. Anyway, Anna, if you’re reading this – many, many thanks!
One thing I was absolutely set on with this album was releasing it through a netlabel. On my own, I probably wouldn’t have reached more than two or three listeners. So I reached out to three different labels, sent them the finished tracks, and asked if they’d be interested in working with me.
To my surprise and encouragement, all three said yes.
The largest of them had the biggest reach — they were also a “real” label, with an official label code, vinyl and CD production, the whole deal. They probably could have taken Schall und Stille places I still only can dream about. But they also wanted some creative control. Specifically, they asked me to leave out or rework “Ukas,” which they felt was “too experimental,” “jarring,” and “confusing.”
That’s when I decided to take my business elsewhere. “Schall und Stille” has been with the Submarine Broadcasting Co. ever since, and they’ve been an absolute delight.
Support Schall und Stille
All proceeds from this album go to “Tara Tierhilfe e.V.“, an animal sanctuary near Cologne, Germany, which is home to more than 70 horses, goats, sheep, donkeys and pigs.
Lyrics
“and you, russia of mine – are not you also speeding like a troika which nought can overtake? is not the road smoking beneath your wheels, and the bridges thundering as you cross them, and everything being left in the rear, and the spectators, struck with the portent, halting to wonder whether you be not a thunderbolt launched from heaven? what does that awe-inspiring progress of yours foretell? what is the unknown force which lies within your mysterious steeds? surely the winds themselves must abide in their manes, and every vein in their bodies be an ear stretched to catch the celestial message which bids them, with iron-girded breasts, and hooves which barely touch the earth as they gallop, fly forward on a mission of god? whither, then, are you speeding, o russia of mine? whither? answer me! but no answer comes —only the weird sound of your collar- bells. rent into a thousand shreds, the air roars past you, for you are overtaking the whole world, and shall one day force all nations, all empires to stand aside, to give you way!”
nikolai vasilievich gogol, “dead souls”
