Playtime is a collection of sounds inspired by child's play and features recordings of our daughter's toys as well as tubular bells from the Stratford Story Centre. The piece is released as two separate tracks, split across two CDs, which are meant to be played simultaneously. It is a submission for the Birmingham-based art zine Indestructible Energy and appears in the 10th issue (published March 2021). Mastered by Byron Jackson.

You can find more information about the project here: http://indestructibleenergy.com

Playtime

Fifty Hertz (Live at Radio Revolten)

Halle Soundwalk (Ziegelwiese)

Mute Frequencies is the sound art project of Ilia Rogatchevski and Laura Rogatchevskaia, both former members of the London post-punk band Sebastian Melmoth. 

Svalbard Soundtracks is their second full length release of 2023 and first album for Flaming Pines. Recorded between 2019 and 2022, the album compiles three original soundscapes inspired by silent documentaries about the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard: A Trip To Svalbard (1930, Norway), Spitsbergen (1958, Poland), and Further North, There Is Only the North Pole (1976, USSR).

Often evoking the grainy nostalgic qualities of public information films of the 1970s, these new scores channel the sublime beauty of the archipelago’s landscape and wildlife, while also highlighting the irrevocable presence of humans on the islands with washes of processed field recordings and industrial synths. 

Svalbard’s geographical location – it’s one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas – and natural resources (mainly fishing and coal mining) have contributed to its unusual political status, codified in the Svalbard (Spitsbergen) Treaty of 1920. 

While some may consider Svalbard to be a mere backdrop for Hollywood blockbusters, wildlife native to this Arctic region is forced to contend with changing environmental pressures in order to survive. Svalbard Soundtracks reflects on humankind’s fragile interrelationship with nature in the context of a shifting global climate.  

Due for release by Flaming Pines, summer 2023. 

RIYL: Stars of the Lid, Loscil, Ghost Box, Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Spiegel, Boards of Canada, Lawrence English

Svalbard Soundtracks

Spitsbergen (Radio Edit)

Mute Frequencies is the sound art project of Ilia Rogatchevski and Laura Rogatchevskaia, both former members of the London post-punk band Sebastian Melmoth. 

Svalbard Soundtracks is their second full length release of 2023 and first album for Flaming Pines. Recorded between 2019 and 2022, the album compiles three original soundscapes inspired by silent documentaries about the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard: A Trip To Svalbard (1930, Norway), Spitsbergen (1958, Poland), and Further North, There Is Only the North Pole (1976, USSR).

Often evoking the grainy nostalgic qualities of public information films of the 1970s, these new scores channel the sublime beauty of the archipelago’s landscape and wildlife, while also highlighting the irrevocable presence of humans on the islands with washes of processed field recordings and industrial synths. 

Svalbard’s geographical location – it’s one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas – and natural resources (mainly fishing and coal mining) have contributed to its unusual political status, codified in the Svalbard (Spitsbergen) Treaty of 1920. 

While some may consider Svalbard to be a mere backdrop for Hollywood blockbusters, wildlife native to this Arctic region is forced to contend with changing environmental pressures in order to survive. Svalbard Soundtracks reflects on humankind’s fragile interrelationship with nature in the context of a shifting global climate.

Due for release on Flaming Pines, 17 August 2023.

RIYL: Stars of the Lid, Loscil, Ghost Box, Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Spiegel, Boards of Canada, Lawrence English

Further North, There Is Only The North Pole

The Humming Top Orchestra documents an interactive performance conducted at the Open House Festival in London, 2022. The performance took place on Hackney’s Beck Road, a street known for its artistic community. The audience was invited to spin a set of humming tops laid out under a railway bridge. Each of these toys emitted a drone when spun. They were miked up and the signal processed live through a bank of effects. The intention was to keep the humming tops spinning indefinitely, creating a long hypnotic symphony of drones that interacted with the passing trains and incidental street sounds.

Photo: Jack Kitchen.

Humming Top Orchestra

Unthread performed by Mute Frequencies as part of Surfeit (curated by The Thames Submarine and Contact) at Cafe Oto, 8 January 2025. 

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/surfeit-presented-by-thames-submarine-and-contact/

Unthread - Cafe Oto - 8 Jan 2025

Mute Frequencies – Ilia and Laura Rogatchevski – are a London based duo working within the intersections of sound, performance and visual media. 

They have exhibited at various venues in the UK (Dilston Grove, IKLECTIK, DivFuse) and performed at the festivals Radio Revolten, Dronica and Open House. 

The project name is both a reference to the inaudible frequencies of the audio spectrum and the electromagnetic frequencies that have the potential to transmit information i.e. radio waves.

Mute Frequencies

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