a cura di  Vito Camarretta  06/09/2004

Nonostante il nostro tradizionale campo d'indagine sia da ritrovarsi nell'urbanato e nei suoi agglomerati, fonte da cui attingiamo prevalentemente vibrazioni (e non solo), affascinati da questo lavoro della Nexsound, etichetta fondata da Andrey Kiritchenko in quel di Kharkiv in Ucraina, lo spostiamo temporaneamente verso una dimensione rurale. Con Andrey, abbiamo provato a capire il fondamento rizomatico di Rural Psychogeography (di cui consigliamo l'esperienza dell'ascolto, e di esperienza non può non parlarsi dato che ogni traccia descrive vari angoli del pianeta più o meno inesplorati, che sono al contempo fonte sonora e veicolo di quella che Natalia Zagurskaya definisce una "resistance through escape"), abbiamo cercato di delineare i contorni della psicogeografia e di capire quali saranno gli step successivi di questa interessante indagine sonora di un roster che si candida ad essere tra i più influenti nell'evoluzione della cosiddetta "musica concreta". Hi Andrey. Could you explain to thevibes.net readers what is psychogeography exactly? Is it what is generally known as "exact science"? Psychogeography is the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. The sudden change of ambience in a street within the space of a few meters; the evident division of a city into zones of distinct psychic atmospheres; the path of least resistance which is automatically followed in aimless strolls (and which has no relation to the physical contour of the ground); the appealing or repelling character of certain places - these phenomena all fall into the field of psychogeography. Psychogeographic research is carried through non-scientific methods such as, for example, the derive (which actually means "drifting"), a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences. Derive is basically aimless drifting through the city, recording the emotions given by a particular place, and mental mapping, the production of mood-based maps. Derive involves playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and is thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll. In a derive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a derive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones. A wide variety of factors influence psychogeographic contours of cities, and the importance of sensory experience in creating individual mental maps must not be underestimated. Drifting through the place, the persons are inevitably exposed to the numerous sensual cues that they may choose to follow. You transmit sounds from Ukraine. How’s your country from psychogeographical viewpoint (impressed by Andrey Kiritchenko, a propos of it what does Babai mean?)? :-) Babai is a rural place where i was born - village near Kharkov city, Ukraine. Historically, it was an estate of landowner whose last name was Babay - so all his family called Babai. But there is another sense of the word that everyone there is joking about - Babay (in myths of Northern Russia) is the name of mysterious creature - scary lop-sided old man that walking along the streets with a cane. Meeting with him is dangerous, especially for kids. You said the term was coined by Guy Debord. But the well-known multiwritist Luther Blisset revindicate the coinage of it, saying he’s one of the academic masters developing the precepts of this disciple? I always thought it was Guy Debord who coined that term, but i actually don't mind if Blisset did it before. After you traced the rural psychogeography, are you goin to prepare an urban one? As you may see in the track list of that cd, there was some people who contributed tracks dedicated to urban places - like cities or districts, but it's a nice idea to have the second issue that of compilation for urban environment. Probably we will try to make it happens. In Nexsound perspective, what's the relation between contemporary electronic composers and historical milestones such as La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Phil Niblock? Hm, a difficult question about relation... We know and respect them for their work. Do you think that the so-called field recording configures a genre, slightly different from traditional electronic composing? and what about DSP? Field recordings add acoustic constituent to pure electronic music and thus extends its frequency range what is very important for me as a musician. Let's return to psychogeography for a while. Are there any attempts to propose a similar workout in the past? Yes, there were two compilations by Geoff Dugan's US-based GD Stereo, Urban Psychogeography by Handful of Dust and should be more i guess... What were your criteria while selecting tracks for rural psychogeography? Are there any fascinating histories related to the places "soundgraphed" in it? the music projects selected for this cd are in the number of my favorites and also some of them are known as psychogeographers. For example, Geoff Dugan, F.Lopez, Courtis who are using field recordings in their works. But more to say, there was a challenge for "digital artists" to represent a certain area without "real-sound" binding. The obtained result is, in my opinion, very tasty sonic vinaigrette. Could u advise some books or cds on the matter? Urban Psychogeography CDs by A Handful of Dust are recommended. Useful links on PSYGEO La Teoria della "Dèrive" di Guy Debord Cosa è la Psicogeografia? (in italiano) London Psychogeographical Association New York Psychogeographical Association C5 Monocular Times Università di Openess (!) La directory Yahoo sulal Psicogeografia Do-It-Yourself Urbanism Passeggiata psicogeografica a Praga Proboscis - Geografie Soniche OPSound Radio Geoff Dugan's label Glowlab