Kedr Livanskiy (real name Yana Kedrina) released her critically acclaimed debut full-length Ariadna via 2MR in the autumn of last year. The album is Kedr’s escape from reality. She was born into a shifting and critical time for Russia’s Soviet Union – old values had been exhausted and were anathematized because of reconstruction. A sense of displacement drove Kedr to find herself. ‘Ariadna’ repeatedly explores the imagery and ideas of romanticism, mythical and fairytale themes.
Her inspiration for this record comes from the Izhevsk (sometimes referred to as “the capital of Russian electronic music”) sound of the 80s, including groups like Stuk Bambuka V XI Chasov (Bamboo Crash at 11AM) and Samtsy Dronta. The movement in Russian experimental music is especially inspiring, with acts likes Valery Chkalov, Sergey Kuryokhin and Pop Mechanica; in general, the late-Soviet period was very inspiring with all its figures in music, cinema, their energy and their approach towards life and art.
