A. Molotkov
Staking out unusual ground between sound poetry, collage and experimental improvisation, Molotkov’s CD creates an unsettling atmosphere while at the same time being inherently entertaining. He has a very personal style of avant garde.
His partner Pamela Zero ( sometimes confused with San Francisco singer, Pamela Z) release is an astonishing solo (and overdubbed) vocal tour de force and is extremely well recorded and produced. Formerly of San Francisco I believe they now live in Portland Oregon. Both CDs are presented in beautiful, slightly oversized, gatefold covers.
My experience as a composer/producer is fairly recent, compared to many DIY veterans. Discord Aggregate’s first CD, “The Attack of the Absolute Zeros” (a jazz non-opera) was released in 1997. At that time, we made an effort to attract some label’s interest and contacted a few dozen of them, but were unable to generate any interest. We decided to release the CD ourselves, which resulted in a very narrow cult following and consistently good reviews by critics and friends. This has been the case for us since then, both with the DA’s second CD “The Texture of the Sky” and Pamela Zero’s and mine solo releases, “Living Backwards” and “Can You Stay Forever?”. I am now in the finishing stages with my second CD “Frozen Angels”, for which I am likely to make another attempt to procure a label, simply because the experience of releasing one’s own CDs has not proven very fruitful in terms of accessing a wider audience. This said, there may be some distribution/communication steps I/we have missed in our past efforts. Incidentally, this experience is not that different from what I have encountered as a writer. In any case, I am optimistic about the future, and I feel that true art that matters will prevail.