It’s great to see an underground Russian artist get a significant amount of attention immediately upon her solo album release. And what’s not to love? Room For The Moon is a enthusiastic romp through Russian and Japanese pop culture, from quirky Russian film versions of Pinocchio and Mary Poppins to the Sailor Moon anime series. Musically she references Yumi Matsutoya’s City Pop, Kate Bush’s prog pop, and Laurie Anderson’s art rock and avant garde experiments. However it would be nice if someone, anyone in Western media would at least give a nod to her accomplished past.
While this is her third solo album as Kate NV, in Russia she’s best known as Екатерина Юрьевна Шилоносова (Yekaterina Shilonosova), a member of Glintshake (ГШ). Overall they can be called a post-punk band, but on their three albums, several EPs and recent live album since 2012, they’ve also explored noise rock, art punk, avant-prog, jazz fusion, with some guidance from guitarist and mastermind Evgeny Gorbunov, a veteran of several bands in Moscow. That’s not to say that Kate isn’t an equal contributor. She’s also spent time in Moscow Scratch Orchestra, an experimental collective inspired by Cornelius Cardew’s theories of improvisation. I’ve been a fan of Glintshake since discovering their Nano Banana EP (2015). Live At DTH Studios, released on April 17, shows them expanding into experimental directions of improv and jazz. Also check out the Beefheart-like guitar interplay near the end of their performance at Kex Hostel in Reykjavik.
Her interests in Japanese City Pop, 80s synthpop and art pop can be found on her first solo album Binasu, released on tape in 2016 originally under the name NV. On her second album (first on the Rvng label) she uses both Russian and English in the title, для FOR (2018), which forgoes vocals to explore her interests in ambient, progressive electronic and new age minimalism. On Room for the Moon, all her previous explorations come together, along with new wave dancepop as filtered through Lizzy Mercier Descloux, arriving at her own brand of art pop that’s as adventurous as Cate Le Bon, with potential to reach an audience as far reaching as her interests and languages (Russian, Japanese, French, English).
