The first duo CD by Borisov & Nikkilä is another anti-solipsistic look by these authors at their surroundings past and present. To paraphrase the title of Borisov's latest solo album "Polished Surface Of A Table", this is a gaze from the imaginary space between the seemingly solid table-plate and the lacquered surface on top of it, complete with stains and acoustic disturbances that distort the perspective.
Borisov's Russian texts (translated into English in the CD booklet) scan the panorama of his everyday life, moving rapidly from "a vagabond from Dagestan" to "bio-underpants" and Soviet hospital life to oblique reminiscences of European demi-monde, creating in the process compact psychological snapshots and surreal verbal cascades in which multiple meanings border on complete dissolution.
The music, inextricably linked to the texts, could be interpreted the same way. It looks at the commonplace forms of rock song, free improvisation, muzak, "smooth jazz" and noise with the purpose of turning the viewpoint around and the structures inside out. Through improvised guitar and percussion, digital and low tech noise editing, deconstructed muzak and recited vocals "Typical Human Beings" aims to be the sound of zoom-adjusting standard perspective into an impossible position and broken forms functioning as if nothing happened.
Alexei Borisov, who lives in Moscow, and Helsinki-based Anton Nikkilä have been recording together since 1994 and performing sporadically as a duo since 1998. 2004 marks a surge in both of their common activities. The studio tracks on "Typical Human Beings" were recorded in both Moscow and Helsinki, and the four live tracks were recorded in Russia and Estonia. Norwegian Trollofon Festival advertized their concert in May 2004 thus: "super-unique electronica with a futuristic Baltic Sea as the lowest common denominator".
While Nikkilä debuted internationally on the Touch/Ash International compilation "Decay" in 1997, Borisov is a true veteran of the Russian music scene, starting in 1980 as the guitarist of Center, the country's first new wave group. Both have previously released two solo CD's, which have been commented e.g. this way:
"Alexei Borisov is one of the most provocative sound artists to come out of the Russian proto-Industrial scene." (David Keenan in his review of Alexei Borisov's "Before the Evroremont", The Wire, October 2002)
"From the opener You Needed Me warped guitar and sawing feedback stress that defying definition is at once a new art form." (TJ Norris in his review of Anton Nikkilä's "White Nights" on SoundVision website, July 2002)
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