Andrey Guryanov

Anthems is the title of the latest album by Berlin-based Russian composer and sound artist Andrey Guryanov. It tells the story of the Soviet and Russian national anthems, from The Internationale to Stalin’s Soviet anthem, which was abolished after the end of the Cold War and then resurrected by Putin. Guryanov sampled contemporary recordings of all the hymns, and always departed from the moment of pause between the tuning chord and the first verse as the source material for his sound manipulations. Static noise and interference map out a score of violent history; the finale 2022 consists exclusively of the sounds of explosions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.