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Last month Marc Almond released his new album, Orpheus in Exile, dedicated to the tragic life, times and tunes of Vadim Kozin, a chanson singer exiled by the Soviets to Russia’s far East because of his sexuality. Though packed with the classics of the Russian romance and folk genres, the record didn’t exactly take the classic route to completion: going virtually native, Marc recorded in intimate apartments around town and playing private shows for assorted oligarchs and biznessmen for the big bucks by night – a B.Eastie after our own hearts, then. Alex Jackson caught up with the story behind Orpheus…

Hey Marc, so you first visited Russia on a tour back in 1990, then lived there again circa ’01 and were back, on and off, over the last few years creating the new record – seems you can’t keep away, eh?

Some of the best times of my life have been spent living in Moscow. It’s a hard city to penetrate for Westerners but I feel privileged that I got to know a bit more of it and the way it works than most. I had an  apartment in a state-building that was just great to go back to after recording and make dinner for friends and it was wonderful to work with [entertainment Royalty] Alla Bayanova, Lyudmilla Zykina [Brezhnev’s favourite] and the Rossiya Orchestra. All thanks to great friends who opened doors for me, especially creative ones.

The creative experience was a good one I take it?

Recording was fantastic. The studios were really high quality, even tiny ones in people’s apartments had a great sound – especially for vocals. It was also wonderful to see some of Moscow’s decadent nightlife!

Speaking of which, gigging for oligarchs must have been insane?

I’ll always enjoy a bit of decadence if I have the opportunity but – even having lived in London and New York as I have done – I was stunned by the levels of opulence. Absolute decadence! At some of the private parties oligarchs would be sat on thrones like Kings and Queens, with great feasts attended by the beautiful people. Certain performances I’d rather not have done but I felt the end justified the means. Moscow can be very expensive and I don’t like to stay in bad places and eat bad food. More importantly though, I will not cut corners on my recording and it was very important for me to use the famed Rossiya Orchestra. I like the idea of being a wandering troubadour and I think it’s a worthy way to finance a project. I’d do the same again to record in Moscow more.

Ok, so why Russian folk and why Vadim Kozin?

I fell in love with it while touring Russia at the beginning of the 1990s and people gave me tapes. Simple yet beautiful melodies, melancholic but uplifting. And I related to it. For Orpheus I picked songs to tell a story of Kozin’s life: Probably Russia’s first gay icon, Kozin suffered for being a victim of his time and political climate. It’s about how life and circumstances change things, how what is forgotten one day is remembered and celebrated the next, how what is outlawed becomes accepted. I want people to love Kozin’s songs as I have, be interested in him and the times lived through and take something for their own lives from it. We sometimes take our liberties for granted.

In Greek mythology Orpheus’ music never lost it’s power, even when sent to Hades – just like Kozin in exile. Are you aligning yourself with these two figures – what is Marc Almond’s exile from?

I’ve often felt that I’ve been excluded, that I didn’t fit in and never felt I was good at communicating except through music. I still don’t feel part of a community, musical or otherwise. At times I’ve felt alone. Maybe that makes me some kind of exile? Though, I would never compare my privileged life to someone like Kozin’s.

Finally Marc, what project(s) lie in the pipeline?

I’m currently recording a more mainstream album as a follow-up to Stardom Road but all original songs. It’s called Variete and is out, I hope, in May. I’d also love to do an album of [fellow Russian folk chansonnier] Alexander Vertinsky songs but I fell out with his estate. They tried to get my previous ‘Russian’ album, Heart on Snow, banned in Russia as it contained a song – Nuit de Noel – they didn’t approve being included because I couldn’t pay them enough. They didn’t succeed. If I’m determined to do something, I do it.

Listen to Orpheus in Exile here

Text by Al Jackson
Oct 7, 2009

Next to get our juices flowing was young Georgy Baratashvili. His SS10 collection at OnOff Exhibition was big on dark romanticism, featuring metallic tops and draped t-shirts – his trademark, apparently.

“Draped clothes are very free, yet very in touch with your body in a flattering way,” explained the kinetic Russian. “They also have this sensitivity that you don’t see much in menswear. When I started doing draped clothes for men, nobody else did it. Now everyone’s trying to pull it off,” claimed Georgy, with infectious confidence.

It’s the easy confidence of a creative tour-de-force, having two other collections and a collaboration with Puma behind him, Georgy indulged in all artistic forms back in Moscow: dancing (at the Fantasia school), painting, appearing on the silver-screen in Roman Khrushch’s Noughts and Crosses.

Our Georgy completed a fashion design and technology degree before moving to London and to Central St.Martins where he’s developed more “wearable” styles. His latest offering, then, is “all about movement; movements of fabric, movements of body, and how they affect each other.” said Georgy. “As a former dancer I love to be able to move, and so I hate clothes that restrict. I wanted my clothes live with the body, not just cover it up.”

Read more…

B EAST founder, Vijai and the eXile go way way back, to the summer of 1997, and those gonzo days when whoring, smacking drugs, being obnoxious, slanderous, mean—and chasing slutty Russian dyevushki—seemed a literary pursuit. Hunter Thompson was still fresh in our minds, and the high-minded English daily, the Moscow Times, spurred vyked expat writers to reject the mainstream news feeds and go groping the belly of the Russian beast.
Having fallen out with eXile founder Mark Ames over girls and dirty underclothes (lol), the Moscow rag slandered me endlessly, printing club reviews under my name even when I had moved on to edit Russian Playboy in 1999. Given the country’s weak libel laws at the time, there was little that I could do. I just hoped that the loser, misogynistic writing that defined the rag would sink it eventually, and the magazine would go under, leaving sweaty, shy, frustrated Mark Ames without a job. Brave behind the computer screen, he’s actually shy in person, with an inferiority complex towards extroverted partyers. However, the eXile kept going and going … Until this week, that is.

Eleven years later, the eXile seems to be finally going bust. Hurrah. Moscow has moved on, to a more sophisticated nightlife scene, and a young generation that’s bored of endless talk about sluts and speed and hookers and dyevs and all the rest of the loserish 90s zeitgeist. Plus, Russia doesn’t want to be seen anymore as another country to be gleefully exploited by drugged-up Yanks.
However, we do feel a slight pang of regret that Moscow’s only alternative is out of vodka, and might have to go into exile. So, in a spirit of comraderie, with the old skool un-PC beast we also ask our readers to contribute to save the eXile. Click on the link above to donate.