cadeu

berlin / petrozavodsk

Verochka closed her eyes and gently swayed her head. She was clearly taken with the poem's rhythm––with lines about herself

Верочка закрыла глаза, ровно качая головой, очевидно, в ритм стихов, повторяемых ею про себя

Maxim Gorky, “An Unpleasant Matter” (1895)

Authorial commentary around Cadeu is fittingly minimal. This musician—Konstantin Kazhev—has virtually nothing to say, leaving western publications like The Village to declare his brief instrumentals “emotional but detached… [Full of] processed voices, reducing the [potential] dynamics of any dance music in favor of a new ‘found sound’ [aesthetic], - the result is intriguing post-dance music". 

The prefix “post” implies that the rhythmic, yet glitchy and staccato patterns of Cadeu’s work look beyond the escapism of Russia’s post-Soviet dance scene. He both borrows from and supersedes that prior movement. If dance music in modern Russia emerged from 90s’ raves, where new communities replaced failed socialist families, then what comes next? 

Kazhev’s home of Petrozavodsk sits on one of Russia’s most northerly shores, far from any centralized resources or fashions. Some commentators have found a related post-dance theme in his absence of consoling repetition, speaking instead of uncertain beats and, indeed, the uncertain presence of sound altogether. Silence plays a defining role in Cadeu’s work. Uncertainty demands it. 

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