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Neuromonk Feofan is a musical project from St. Petersburg, performing music in drum'n'bass style. The project is popular on the Internet and got the status of an Internet meme. The group members remain anonymous.

Neuromonk Feofan's performances are stylized as Russian folk festivals with group members dressed in bast shoes, kosovorotkas and sarafans. The lyrics of Feofan's songs abound with Slavic and obsolete Russian words, and the vocals are filled with characteristic rope. Neuromonk Feofan performs his songs with balalaika side by side with drum'n'bass rythms.

Members
The members of the group remain anonymous, but it is known that the project consists of the author of the songs and the performer Neuromonk Feofan himself (his real name is Oleg ) and DJ Nikodim helping him during the performances. Neuromonk Feofan himself is a tall man with a beard whose face is hidden behind a hood, dressed in a Orthodox-like hoodie and bast shoes and holding a stave with a laser pointer hidden inside.

History
In an interview with the Afisha magazine Nikodim claims that he professionally studied music before meeting Feofan, who prompted him many new ideas. Neuromonk Feofan himself started recording his songs back in 2009. The idea to start a new musical project was formulated by Feofan and Nikodim during their forest walks.

The debut album of the group "Drum in the Soul, Bright Russia in the Heart" was released in early 2015, its concert was dedicated to a concert tour with performances around the cities of Russia and Belarus. The album was warmly received by listeners and critics and entered the top 10 of Russian iTunes.

Neuromonk Feofan took part in such Russian music festivals as "Kubana", "Nashestvie", "Dikaya Myata", "VK Fest", and other massive gigs.

At the end of 2015, Neuromonk Feofan was recognized as the Russian independent Performer of the Year according to Yandex.

Criticism
Musical critics have noted the novelty of the fusion of Russian folk motifs with electronic dance music in Neuromonk's music, comparing the project with some legendary Russian performers leke MC Vspyshkin and Ivan Kupala. In one of his interviews Sergey Shnurov said that Neuromonk Feofan is "a combination of the incompatible, they are Orthodox atheists, they are believing Komsomols", and he also approved Neuromonk Feofan's activities in social networks. The lyrics of Neuromonk's songs abound with references to the life of Ancient Rus and are devoted to Russian nature and physical labor, but they contain a bit of irony. The main distinguishing feature of the project is their image and visual component. In her article at Zvuki.ru, Victoria Bazoeva pointed to a good level of stylization, and noted that the use of modern words along with historicism can somewhat disappoint some true connoisseurs of reliable historical reconstruction. After the first album release many people were unconcerned about Feofan, but the touring success and the performance at "Cubana" Festival forced many critics to reconsider their opinion.

The creativity of the project is sometimes called conceptual, postmodernist, while contrasting, however, with representatives of contemporary Russian art like Vladimir Sorokin.

Albums

 * 2015 — "Drum in the Soul, Bright Russia in the Heart"
 * 2016 — "Great Forces of Goodness"
 * 2017 — "To Dance. To sing"

Singles

 * 2015 — "To Trample Down"
 * 2015 — "Now I Want to Dance!"
 * 2016 — "The Hut is Walking with Staggering"
 * 2016 — "The Old Russian Drum"
 * 2017 — "And Now the Bear is Singing"
 * 2017 — "The Old Russian Soul"

Links

 * Interview with Neuromonk Feofan (Russian)
 * vDud pres. Neuromonk Feofan (Russian)

Websites

 * Neuromonk Feofan Official Website
 * Discogs
 * MusicBrainz

Social Networks

 * Facebook
 * VK

Music and Videos

 * Yandex.Music
 * YouTube