Outsider experimental electropop from Russia.

One of our favorite recent discoveries… Virtually unknown outside of the motherland, Тальник (written as Talnik in English / translates to Willow) is the Moscow-based electronic pop duo of Sasha Ukolov and Svetlana Tsepkalo. We’ve been obsessed with the enigmatic duo’s delicate songs ever since we first came across their music on LA-based label Total Stasis’ excellent show on NTS Radio.

It’s difficult to describe Тальник’s music simply in terms of genre, though they’ve explored all manners of sounds ranging from avant-folk to deconstructed hip-hop and dream pop to left-field electronics. In interviews, they’ve expressed little concern with genre limitations, once stating, “If you yourself do not put together a shelf on which you are going to sit, you will be gently seated on any suitable one from the existing ones. It is difficult to conceive the absence of shelves, there is no ‘whatever’ shelf.”

Whatever the genre, one thing for certain is they have a knack for quiet, beautiful melodies that evoke memories of a lost time and place. Their work has been described as “very Russian music, as if once heard in childhood and reproduced 20 years later in a dream.”

“All our tracks are connected with native places, imbued with their atmosphere… We often remember foggy hills, porches, empty streets at night.”

Fundamentally rejecting mainstream approaches, the band started off self-releasing their music on Russian social media platform VK and Bandcamp only with little to no promotion. One way or another, their music has reached Russian listeners with many publications featuring them on year-end “best of” lists. Their song “Цвет надежды (Color of Hope)” from their debut album Samguns was included in Афиша’s hundred best songs of 2014 alongside tracks by AG Cook, James Blake, Objekt, Caribou, Aphex Twin, and Sophie. Their music has since been uploaded to streaming platforms, but remains completely self-released.

“Цвет надежды (Color of Hope)” is featured on an amazing new release titled Music · Perspective Vol. 1 compiled by our friend Justin Tripp (1/2 of Georgia) and 2 Bridges’ Simon Gabriel.

Interdisciplinary artists (Tsepkalo makes vases and Ukolov is a gardener), the duo also produce DIY visual accompaniment to their songs that further build upon their world. Their various YouTube channels are filled with abstract homemade videos that have a bit of an art school aesthetic, but the approach never comes off forced or inauthentic. Rather, the duo seems to be simply sharing the world they’re seeing through various lenses. Most of the videos are shot on handheld cameras.

Check this vintage handheld recording of Ukolov performing at what looks to be an orphanage with just a microphone, small midi keyboard, and Roland SP-404 sampler.

And this similarly recorded video of Ukolov and Tsepkalo performing outdoors to a small crowd on a massive orange soundsystem.

In an interview with Афиша, the band shared, “All our tracks are connected with native places, imbued with their atmosphere. ‘Seversk lite’ is a song about a specific place on the map. ‘Musik is my drug’ is about the club past of one of us. We often remember foggy hills, porches, empty streets at night.”

Head deeper down the rabbit hole of Тальник…

https://talnik.com/

https://talnik.bandcamp.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@talnik