Oleg Kostrow
The musical East is only slowly being explored. Oleg Kostrow is from
Russia, where he is at home both in the club- and arts- scene of Moskow and
St. Petersburg. On the one hand, he is one half of
MESSER FÜR FRAU MÜLLER, on the other hand, KOSTROW is known for his several theatre- and
performance-projects. For most of them, he composed and arranged the music,while cooperating with the Russian designer BARTENEW (who has worked with Brian Eno, Paco Rabanne, Andrew Logan).One such project is IWONA - a fairy-tale which is performed by children.The colourful and lively costumes by BARTENEW and the congenially colourfuland lively pieces of music by KOSTROW are equally important here. IWONA was performed for the first time in association with the Goethe-Institute inNowosibirsk. Other shows followed, for example in London.
But KOSTROW's music for IWONA can easily stand on its own, even without the theatre-play. It is beautiful, miraculous, full of humor and variety, is
sweeping, ingenious and highly original. KOSTROW chose to use most of the
musical styles of the past fifty years when he composed the pieces for
IWONA (including disco, mambo, psychedelic). One can always tell the style as well as KOSTROW's revision of it. Nevertheless, the collection of the
pieces gives a rather well-rounded impression.
Kostrow's music is entirely electronic,
playful, happy, and sexy. It works like easy-listening, but it is full of
side-ways, -traps, and -views.
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