Wasp'n'Hornet

An intriguing sound has appeared from the streets of Minsk, courtesy of the duo Wasp'n'Hornet. One of the project's members - Vitalii Sidoruk - has connections to the nationally famous ensemble Lyapis Trubetskoy as an animator and video director. Sidoruk's partner, Nikolai Storozhuk, is the son of ? drummer... who has enjoyed even longer experience with the same band. No sooner, therefore, does a conversation start regarding Wasp'n'Hornet and their "novelty" than certain traditions also need to be considered. This link between innovation and heritage will continue among the three groups on display today: pleasing novelty will show itself as part and parcel of something much older.
That complex relationship between new sounds, long careers, and long-standing habits certainly comes to the fore in a short paragraph that accompanies some songs from Messrs Sidoruk and Storozhuk. "W'n'H has been built through the joint efforts of a musician and a video artist: together they've got a clear idea of what they want to say. This is archetypal, contemporary DIY music - but if we'd rather avoid those tags and labels, then you could simply call Wasp'n'Hornet an independent electronic duo who are developing a range of ideas."
An initial nervousness over pigeonholing is immediately evident: it ties a hopefully unique, modern-day expression to somebody else's output from the dim, distant - and demeaning! - past. The very notion of anything "contemporary" emerging from within audible "archetypes" is complex enough. Somehow, it transpires, we're dealing with both fashion and tradition at the same time. That issue alone begs clarification.

The struggle between innovation and influence continues: "When it comes to lyrics, everything's pretty straightforward... although some people might, perhaps, find some signs of debauchery here and there... If we simply put all metaphorical trickery to one side and state things in a straightforward manner, then W'n'H write songs for people who feel good. The music's the main thing! It's actually hard to add anything else..."
We'd rather put all metaphorical trickery to one side
That text has been translated from Russian, but there is also a slightly different, English version available online. Here readers are informed of the musicians' intent to develop "a new concept of morality and/or ethics." Talk of some universal balance and harmony even transpires. Somewhere within "simple" and "straightforward" material reside grand hopes. An allegedly no-nonsense aesthetic does not obscure a serious, social goal. Yet what, exactly, is it?
We move on... Those brief anglo-musings then conclude with a quote missing from the Russian version: "Evil makes sense only when it's virtual and beautiful." Put differently, we appear in the small, yet promising catalog of Wasp'n'Hornet to be toying with the appearance of bad behavior, yet for all the devil-may-care behavior on display, Sidoruk's and Sotorzhuk's ethical imperative resides in the advocacy of some ideal kinship.
Designating that ideal, though, is evidently difficult. A simple, upstanding and inclusive goal has no name, it would seem. - Far From Moscow