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Articles by Timothy Misir

Russian and UK Music Industries in Focus at Selector Pro

If you’ve ever thought about starting your own record label or putting on your own concert, Selector Pro, kicking off today, is where you’ll find the...

Film Music Celebrates Work of Soviet Composer Mikael Tariverdiev

Twenty years after his death, a new compilation of Mikael Tariverdiev’s film music is bringing the composer’s oeuvre more recognition outside Russia...

Photographer Shines Light on Overlooked Soviet Architectural Wonders

A project by a Canadian photographer is drawing attention to an overlooked area of Soviet architecture — bus stop design.

Biennale Week: Special Guests and Projects Not to Miss

"My Red Homeland" is the British-Indian sculptor's first solo exhibition in Russia, and will include three major sculptures from the Turner Prize winner's...

6th Moscow Biennale Opens at VDNKh

The 6th Moscow Biennale, bringing together more than 70 participants from 30 countries, opens today at VDNKh. The biennale, which ran into financial...

Curator Bart De Baere: A Moscow Biennale Preview

The 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art opens next Tuesday and runs for only 10 days. Its mouthful of a theme is "How to Gather? Acting in a...

Avant-Garde Architects Brodsky and Utkin in the Spotlight

The early works of Russian avant-garde architects Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin — copper plate etchings of dystopian and fantastical worlds —...

Cult Electronic Music Producers to Share Stage at Selector After Dark

Electronic music fans in Moscow are in for a treat Friday, as FunkinEven and Brassfoot, two producers from cult electronic music label Apron Records...

Mark Fell Brings Sex Therapy-Inspired Electronic Music to Moscow

Multidisciplinary artist and experimental music composer Mark Fell, one half of seminal glitch and minimal electronics duo snd, has been making music...

Mercury Prize-Winning Young Fathers Hits Moscow

Fans of Young Fathers, the rap, soul and dub-infused pop trio from Edinburgh, will finally get to see the group play its first shows in Russia.

Drone Pioneer Dylan Carlson Heads to Moscow

Dylan Carlson is widely credited as pioneering the sub-genre of heavy metal known as drone metal, in which heaviness is achieved through the use of sustained...

St. Petersburg Noise-Pop Quintet Readies Debut

Five years after the release of "Happy Songs for Happy Zombies," Pinkshinyultrablast's first EP, the Russian shoegaze/dream-pop band will finally release...

Russian Avant-Garde Musicians AWOTT Bring 'Pure, Childish Fun'

One would be forgiven for assuming that Russian avant-garde music has faded away in recent years, but in dank basements out of the public eye, a diverse...

Tallinn Lo-Fi Chanteuse Maria Minerva Comes to Moscow

Estonian avant-pop musician Maria Juur, better known as Maria Minerva, made her name releasing introspective lo-fi music recorded on her computer in her...

Rock Band Swans Brings Visceral Show to Russia

At 60 years old, Michael Gira, the frontman of New York experimental rock band Swans, is showing no signs of slowing down.

Scottish Hip-Hop Trio to Play First Moscow Show

Scottish alternative hip-hop trio Young Fathers is heading to Moscow for a concert fresh off their Mercury Prize win for best album from the United...

Veteran Cyberpunk Composer Stuart Argabright Comes to Moscow

Music industry veteran Stuart Argabright, who played a part in almost all the new styles that came out of New York's fertile music underground of the...

Alternative Miss World to Open Gorky Ice Rink

There is no snow on the ground let alone ice, but Gorky Park opens its enormous ice rink Friday with a grand show.

Charlemagne Palestine: Between Minimal and Maximal


The composer Charlemagne Palestine, known for his repetitive drone pieces of extreme length and physicality performed on church organs, bells and piano...

Syrian Wedding Singer Headlines Electro Music Festival

Moscow’s best nightclub Arma 17 may have closed its doors but fans can rejoice this weekend as the team behind the nightclub are putting on “Outline...

'Poor But Sexy' Explains Cultural Divide in Europe

Polish journalist Agata Pyzik's book "Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West" takes a half academic, half journalistic look at punk...

Director Gabe Polsky Returns to His Roots With 'Red Army'


"Red Army," which opened the Moscow International Film Festival, looks at life during Soviet times and the social and cultural...

IDM Innovators Plaid Headline Selector Gig at Strelka

Electronic music veterans Plaid take to the stage last at Strelka Institute this Friday as a trio of London acts play a British Council event bringing...

Queer Artists to Share Stage in Russian Concerts

"The point of playing music is to give and never be afraid to take it too far," said Jamie Stewart, musician and songwriter from Xiu Xiu, who took...

Beat Film Festival Celebrates 5th Anniversary

"Do you want to know how to write a song? Songwriting is about counterpoint. Counterpoint is the key. Putting two disparate images beside each other...

Jozef Van Wissem's Compositions Bring Lute Into 21st Century

Brooklyn-based musician and minimalist composer Jozef van Wissem, the winner of last year's Soundtrack Award at Cannes who will play for Moscow audiences...

Garage Encourages Spontaneity and Engagement with 'Do It'

A young woman attempting to pull out a tablecloth from a dining table, littering the floor with broken tableware in the process, a naked and blindfolded...

Conductorless Orchestra 'Persimfans' Sees Contemporary Revival

Pervy Simfonichesky Ansambl Bez Dirizhyora — The First Conductorless Symphonic Ensemble, or Persimfans — was the main orchestra in the Soviet Union...

Arma 17 Closing After 6-Year Run

This weekend sees Arma 17, Moscow's best-known electronic music venue, famous for its all-night parties and progressive musical tastes, open its doors...

Greenaway's New Exhibit Dramatizes Russian Avant-Garde

The Soviet Union in early 20th century, a time of social and political upheaval, was also an artistic utopia, and saw the interplay of suprematism...

New Venue to Fill Niche Amid Concert Spaces

The latest addition to Moscow's live music scene, the Philharmonic of New Musical Arts, or FINOMI, aims to fill a longstanding gap in Moscow's music...

Petrozavodsk's Indie Music Scene: A Quick Primer (Video)

Petrozavodsk, though a small city, is highly regarded in punk and indie music circles. The duo known as Love Cult, Anya Kuts and Ivan Afanasyev, are...

Love Cult's Hazy Soundscapes Recall the Frozen North

Near the Arctic circle on the shores of Lake Onega lies Petrozavodsk, a northwestern city of 300,000 in the the Republic of Karelia. The capital...

Sound Art Revolutionaries Rediscovered

The most fertile and adventurous period in the history of sound experiments is arguably from 1910 to the late 1930s, when they were developed around...

How Soviet Engineers Helped Make the Music of the Future

Most discussions about early electronic music inevitably turn to Soviet engineer Leon Theremin, the pioneer of electronic musical instruments. This...

Dying Musical Traditions of the Caucasus Recorded

American scholars traveled through Georgia in order to capture the diverse and rapidly disappearing musical traditions of the Caucasus.

Russian Filmmaker Makes Waves With Bodybuilding Documentary

Apart from the continuing presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, professional bodybuilding has had little impact in the mass media. However, the new bodybuilding...

Pussy Riot Members to Attend Singapore Art Awards Ceremony

Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina will make their first international public appearance since their release when they attend...

7 Ideas Changing the Face of Moscow (Photo Essay)

Thursday saw the third Moscow Urban Forum, with its focus this time on life outside the city center. If you haven't been to Moscow lately, you'd be surprised...

Moscow Club Hosts David Tibet's Myrninerest

Over the past 30 years, musician, writer and poet David Tibet has made music with a host of collaborators, with albums like "Nature Unveiled" (1984)...

The Ukraine Protests as Seen Through Social Media (Photo Essay)

In Ukraine's Orange Revolution, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, was the focus of daily mass protests in Kiev in 2004. In 2013, protesters...

Another Russia Shown in Images

The Moscow-based photography collective Troyka opened their first solo exhibition in the small hall of the Artplay Design Center on Saturday.

Local Artists Bring Burning Man to Moscow, Adding Russian Flavor

Burning Man, an annual festival that began as a summer solstice gathering in 1986, now sees more than 50,000 participants descend upon Nevada's Black...

Photography Collective's Dreams of Another Russia (Photo Essay)

The Moscow-based photography collective Troyka, whose exhibition at Artplay Design Center ends Thursday, shares some of their photographs with The Moscow...

Lessons in Austere Dutch Design at Moscow Manezh

Almost 50 pieces from Droog, a Dutch conceptual design studio known for their innovative lifestyle and furniture pieces and household fittings, often...

Heavy Themes in Experimental Theater's First English Production

This weekend, The Moscow Times spoke with Ivan Vyrypayev, artistic director of the Praktika Theater, and actor Cazimir Liske, both of whom are working...

Private Life in Soviet Times (Photo Essay)

Nov. 7 was a major holiday celebrated during the Soviet Union as October Revolution Day and commemorated the rise of the Bolsheviks in 1917. As nostalgic...

Appleseed Cast Gives Memorable Moscow Concert

Last weekend must have been particularly hard for alternative music fans in Moscow, as the gig calendar in the capital was packed with the likes of American...

Kazansky Railway Station Gets a One-Night-Only Makeover

As the last trains departed from Kazansky railway station, stragglers and latecomers to their carriages were puzzled by the sight of long lines of revelers...

Looking Back at the Best of the Moscow Biennale (Photo Essay)

As more than a month full of exhibitions draws to a close, The Moscow Times looks back at some of the most interesting parts of the 5th Moscow Biennale...

Nurse With Wound Plays Rare Concert in Moscow

Steven Stapleton, who goes by the moniker Nurse With Wound, or NWW, played a rare concert in Moscow over the weekend and told The Moscow Times about...

Russia's Top 20 Designers Today (Photo Essay: Part 2)

Following the first part of Sergey Serov's top designers working in Russia today, the second installment rounds off his top 20.

Russia's Top 20 Designers Today (Photo Essay: Part 1)

Sergey Serov selects the best designers currently working in Russia ahead of his Friday lecture on the topic, "My Design: Top 20," at Moscow Design Week...

Belyayevo Acclaimed as Arts Incubator

Moscow-based architect and researcher Kuba Snopek, has released a book about Moscow's southwestern district of Belyayevo and preserving generic buildings...

Verhoeven Says Hollywood Is Out of Ideas

The creator of some of the most iconic films of the '90s deplores the lack of a human element in today's Hollywood blockbusters.

For William Basinski, the Message Is the Metaphor

Silence is a concept that to many might seem contrary to the purpose of most music. However, experimental musician and composer William Basinski expounded...

Pioneer of Experimental Metal Plays Russian Shows

Prolific Godflesh frontman, Justin Broadrick, will be returning to Moscow in September fronting post-metal band Jesu.

Third Wave of Coffee Brings Quality to Moscow

A good cup of coffee is hard to come by for connoisseurs in the Russian capital.