User:Dmitry Rozhkov/Fogh Depot

Fogh Depot is an instrumental electronic-experimental jazz band combining elements of neoclassical and ambient music. Formed in 2014 in Moscow, it signed to the German independent label Denovali Records. As of 2023, the group has released two studio albums, an album of remixes, and has performed at a number of Russian and European music festivals.

Story
The band was founded in 2014 by drummer Alexei Gusakov and saxophonist Henrihs Tomass. Alexei had immersed himself in the underground and avant-garde European music scene, attending festivals, listening to material from niche labels, and participating in a number of avant-garde projects in Russia. He mastered drumming, sampling, and sound synthesis before forming a drone-jazz duo - hatching ideas at the junction of electronic and live instruments.

In 2014, the duo was joined by saxophonist Henrihs Tomass, who had an Akai MPC and several analog synthesizers. Alexei’s original collaborator eventually left and the trio became a duo once again, now with Henrihs.[ The combined ideas and possibilities of the two musicians became the first tracks of a new collaboration. The name Fogh Depot came to mind while listening to an old Burial track.

A new third member of the team, bassist Mikhail Klimov, was found on VK service, thanks to the common musical tastes guiding Alexei and Henrihs at that time.

Video artist Anton Gordeev also joined the group in 2014. He initially shot one acoustic track with the trio, after which it was decided that he would perform with the band and document their entire visual history. Anton thus became a full-fledged member of the group; he edits video material live on stage to the rhythm of the music. The visual component has become an important part of the group's show, although from time to time Fogh Depot find themselves forced to perform without it.

"When I heard their music, I realized that I needed to create an instrument, somewhat like a voice, with the help of video. Their music is very melancholic, and I wanted to bring a sensation of energy and emotion into it. We made a forty-minute set… so that the audience would sense the poetry in the music."

Fogh Depot
Fogh Depot's first tracks had a dark jazz aesthetic. The first album of 2015, named after the band, was formed in this vein. The album was released on the German independent label Denovali Records. In the spring of 2014, one of the label owners had discovered Fogh Depot's music on SoundCloud, contacted the musicians via Twitter and asked them for more tracks.

"I remember that the subject of the letter was like this: “Further tracks”. Of course, we answered “yes”, although in fact we didn’t have any. In a few months, we recorded half an album, and by the autumn it was done."

Wax Poetics described Fogh Depot's debut album as "a perfect blend of jazz and electronica". To reviewer Night Keen from A Closer Listen blog, some tracks sounded like The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, like "Xploding Plastix took too much Vicodin", and even like "late-night Weather Channel listening".

Turmalinturm
For the second album, titled Turmalinturm, the group began to record at a studio located in the building of the former Badaevskaya brewery. Problems with the rent began almost immediately, and the group had to urgently move out. Two weeks after the musicians moved their instruments and equipment out, the studio, and the entire building, burned down.

"For me, “dark jazz” is a niche genre: its elements quickly turned into a common and easily reproduced cliché. It seems to me that there was never really any special philosophy behind it. On our second album, we began to consciously distance ourselves from this genre and it is unlikely that we will ever return to it in its pure form."

In 2016, again on Denovali Records, the band's second album, Turmalinturm, was released, offering a seamless fusion of electronica and jazz, as well as other experiments accessible to an unprepared listener.

"Creeping beats, dark ambient, and intimate jazz: with Turmalinturm Fogh Depot managed to create a hypnotic and twilit instrumentation. Just perfect for a trip from Silent Hill to Twin Peaks and back (if a return were possible)."

Boris Barabanov from Kommersant predicted recognition for the album comparable to the international success of Lighthouse by the St. Petersburg prog group iamthemorning.

Carsten Agthe of Betreutes Proggen writes of the "parallel universe" created by Fogh Depot on this album, consisting of "eight fixed stars shining in a variety of colors and pulsating at different frequencies". At the same time, according to the reviewer, the compositions are united by melancholy, in the midst of which “something like hope occasionally flares up”.

Changes in the band and aesthetics
In 2017, the band performed at the Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF) in St. Petersburg. The same year, one of its founders, Henrihs Tomass, left the band. A replacement was found in saxophonist Anatoly Osipov, who brought his own sound and ideas to the group.[

On September 20, 2018, Fogh Depot, along with Anton Maskeliade,chkbns, Kito Jempere Band and Chikiss, represented Russia at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany.

On May 9, 2019, Fogh Depot performed as a trio at a showcase of new Russian music at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, England, along with Chkbns, Lucidvox and Shortparis. On May 11, as part of The Great Escape, the band played another set at the Fabrica art gallery.

On June 22, 2019, another performance took place in Vladivostok at the Ilya Lagutenko V-Rox Festival.

"The pandemic has changed the situation. Perhaps it was the reduction in the general noise around us, or perhaps it was just time for something to take shape from our endless searching. I remember very well one morning in May 2020, in the middle of the Moscow lockdown, when I saw and heard clearly what the new album should be like. It was a bright moment of complete clarity."

Turmalinturm [Remixes]
In 2018, a collection of remixes Turmalinturm [Remixes] was released on Denovali Records. It featured English composers Franz Kirmann and John Lemke, Italian sound artist and sound researcher SaffronKeira, and Russian artists Dmitry Ustinov, Moa Pillar, HMOT and Monokle.

We Are the Prison
The single We are the prison, released in 2019, became Fogh Depot's first collaboration and "desperate experiment", as well as the first sign of the direction of the band's next album. For the first time, vocals appeared on the band's track courtesy of Russian-Canadian jazz singer Anastasia Minster and the music shifted towards electronic dream pop. The official video was shot by Anton Gordeev. Filming took place in Iceland and Holland, on the island of Texel, where the final scene of the film Knockin' on Heaven's Door was filmed.

"Flickering beats and ominous classical textures give off heavy These New Puritans vibes, while the track’s simmering new wave poetics recall prime-era Kate Bush. Overall, it’s a hypnotic blend of IDM, dark jazz, and dream-pop. Furthermore, the song’s video is pure eye candy – a visually dazzling collage of nature shots featuring a young woman dreamily wandering through barren landscapes: desolate snow-capped hills, windy beaches, fiery woodlands, and more. It’s all shot in breathtaking cinematography, and absolutely packed with symbolic imagery tackling the song’s themes of toxic co-dependency in a relationship."

In the summer of 2020, Fogh Depot took part in the Sound Up festival of new music, held at the Moscow Richter Hotel on Pyatnitskaya Street. The group was allocated one of the spaces, and during the five days of the festival, a sketch of the future Richter composition was created. This track is slated to be released on their next album.

Peace! Friendship! Gum!
In 2020, during the period of the stay-at-home order associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, Fogh Depot tracks were used in the performances of the Fizika of the Fizika online community and gained a significant number of view.

The group had its first OST experience with the Russian drama series Peace! Friendship! Gum! (2020-2021). Cloud Apiary became the musical theme of a character who plunges into the abyss of drug madness during the second season of the show. This track uses the sound of an empty plastic bottle, recorded in rehearsal, baritone saxophone, electric double bass, live drums, Yamaha piano, acoustic double bass sample and analog synthesizers.

According to Aleksei Gusakov, the group's contribution to the film project added to its popularity at home. In 2021, the number of Fogh Depot listeners in Russia increased to match its audience abroad.

Live performances
The first solo concert of Fogh Depot took place on February 22, 2019 in the Pluton art space (Artplay Design Center, Moscow).

Fogh Depot regularly performs in Moscow at venues for avant-garde and experimental music, such as the DOM Cultural Center, as well as at festivals, in particular, Fields in Gorky Park.


 * Notable performances


 * 04/25/2015 — Fogh Depot album presentation at DOM Cultural Center, Moscow
 * 05/31/2017 — Sound Up Festival in the Central House of Architects, Moscow
 * 09/30/2017 — SKIF XXI Festival, St. Petersburg
 * 07/17/2018 — Moscow Urban Forum in Zaryadye Park, Moscow
 * 09/09/2018 — Fields festival in Gorky Park, Moscow
 * 09/20/2018 — Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg, Germany
 * 03/22/2019 — solo concert in the Pluton art space, Artplay Design Center, Moscow
 * 05/11/2019 — The Great Escape Festival, Brighton, England
 * 06/22/2019 — V-ROX EXPO Festival, Vladivostok
 * 07/06/2019 — "Pain" Festival, ZIL Cultural Center, Moscow
 * 08/16/2019 — Signal Festival, Nikola-Lenivets Art Park, Kaluga Oblast
 * 08/27/2020 — Volgafest-2020, Samara

Band members

 * Alexey Gusakov: drums, samplers;
 * Mikhail Klimov: double bass, keyboards;
 * Anatoly Osipov (since 2017): tenor saxophone;
 * Anton Gordeev: video art.

former members


 * Henrihs Tomass (2014-2017): baritone saxophone, synthesizers

Albums

 * 2015 — Fogh Depot
 * 2016 — Turmalinturm
 * 2018 — Turmalinturm [Remixes]
 * 2019 — We Are the Prison (single, feature Anastasia Minster)

Videos
All clips were shot by Anton Gordeev and published on the official Denovali Records Youtube channel.