Tinnitus

A person suffering from tinnitus hears continuous sounds even though no source is present. This varies from humming to buzzing, whistling or hissing. In some cases it leads to depression, madness and even suicide. Composer John Duncan, who after breaking up with a lover created sound art consisting of him having sex with a dead body, called the affliction 'my permanent private concert'.

Duncan is a central figure in the world of musician Evgeny Voronovski and journalist/music lover Dmitri Vasilijev, who discuss the alternative Russian music scene of the 1990s and 2000s in Tinnitus. Electronic noise is often amplified close to the threshold of pain and death is never far away in the lyrics. Many makers are no longer alive. A visit to their graves and a subsequent gig in woods that are supposedly home to mysterious forces underline the pitch-black outlook of a post-USSR generation who captured romance and nihilism in an all-devouring sound.

Also see Scopitone@WORM.