mycenae bottom

mycenae bottom is a collaboration of Feliks Mirenskiy (Israel) and Konstantin Samolovov (Russia) mostly working in the direction of free improvisation with percussion and electronics.

Feliks Mirenskiy (Brom, Drojji, Catatonic Leisure) is a multi-instrumentalist and electronic musician who, until recently, resided in Moscow (Russia) but is now based in Tel Aviv (Israel). He is known for his versatility and ability to seamlessly blend into various ensembles and genres, whether it be long-established projects, free-improv collaborations, or DJ sets in bars.

Konstantin Samolovov (Dogs Bite Back, Wozzeck, Mars-96) is a drummer who, in the past, played across genres ranging from punk and Brit-pop to art and garage rock. Since the early 2010s, he has delved into experimental music. In addition to his long-term projects, he has participated in numerous collaborations with Russian and international musicians. For many years, he played a pivotal role in developing the experimental music scene in St. Petersburg as the co-curator of the Spina!rec label and organizing concerts in collaboration with the Intonema label.

Feliks and Konstantin have performed as a duo only a few times, but their collaboration began many years ago. In the spring of 2016, the Spina!rec label in St. Petersburg (Russia), where Konstantin was one of the curators, organized an experimental music festival. The festival’s lineup, in the label’s typical fashion, was formed by unexpected, fresh, and meticulously crafted collaborations in terms of sound and stage concepts. This led to a joint performance by Konstantin and the Moscow trio Lichna Nega (Andrey Guryanov, Anastasia Kuzmina, Feliks Mirenskiy), which marked the beginning of a friendship and ongoing collaboration between the musicians.

In 2017, Feliks and Konstantin played as a duo for the first time and recorded the track “Garain” – a garage improvisation in every sense. Feliks dissected the guitar while Konstantin played an old drum kit, all taking place in an actual garage amidst a summer Moscow downpour. In the following years, the duo played together in various formations, such as a quartet with Ilia Belorukov and Andrey Guryanov in a St. Petersburg studio, and as a trio with Alexey Sysoev in a studio session at the Moscow Dom; they also performed as part of the Dogs Bite Back trio, where Feliks supported the group during a concert at Ionoteka.

Finally, in 2021, the musicians deliberately met again, first in a Moscow studio and then in St. Petersburg.

The material selected from these two recordings became the album “enormous height above us” accompanied by the following text by Ilia Belorukov: “[This] duo is all about electroacoustic improvisation, or more precisely, free improvisation with percussion and electronics, which implies an active, reactive music – and this is evident to the fullest extent.”

Links:
soundcloud.com/samolovov/mikensky-samolovov-garain
youtu.be/LkAuckJhVOw
samolovov.bandcamp.com
www.youtube.com/@fesikl
www.mixcloud.com/fesikl
www.instagram.com/fesikl42

Our releases:
NCT024 – mycenae bottom – enormous height above us | 2023