So one day British musician and music producer Stephen Coates was walking through a flea market in St Petersburg, Russia (as you do) when he spotted something which looked a lot like this.
Intrigued, he stopped and asked the seller about it, but didn’t get a very satisfactory answer. Coates bought the thin plastic disk anyway, discovered it did in fact play music, and then set about trying to discover more.
This was, apparently, a bit difficult at first.
Of course, had Coates asked Mama, he could quickly have found out what he had acquired. This is because Mama long ago read Back in the USSR: the true story of rock in Russia, about the underground rock scene in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
We went on about it here, you might remember.
This book, published in the very late 80s, was written by Atemy Troitsky. Who was very much in the thick of it all as a producer, musician, critic and organiser of some of the Soviet Union’s first rock festivals.
Troitsky is mostly concerned with the scene in the late 70s and 80s, but he includes as a sort of prequel a whole chapter on the clandestine music lovers who came before. These were the stilyagi, or hipsters, who went to extraordinary lengths to simulate the Western lifestyle of rock and roll fans in the late 40s and 50s, up to and including listening to bootleg records made out of old X-rays.
One of which, of course, is what Stephen Coates had got his hands on.
Mama is smug that she knew about this before it was cool. But then on the other hand, Mama did not start a whole organisation called X-Ray Audio dedicated to preserving the records and researching the phenomenon by meeting and interviewing some of the participants like Stephen Coates did. And now there is a whole exhibition, Bone Music, at the contemporary art gallery, Garage, dedicated to these fabulous objects.
Mind you, not that the ryebra, or ribs, were just about passing round Western rock and roll or jazz music, acceptable during the war, summarily banned afterwards. Also frowned upon by the post-war censors was music by Russian emigrees, 50s gangsta rap-esque prison ballads, and songs by any individuals who had pissed off the Communist party or one of its more influential members.
Why X-rays, you might be wondering. Well, they were reasonably easily obtainable – hospitals had to get rid of them after a certain amount of time because of the fire risk they represented – and took the grooves cut by improvised recording equipment well enough, if not particularly well, to be able to hear the desired tunes. Alongside a lot of hissing and crackling.
So the Bone Music exhibition is not just celebrating the roentgenizdat, but the people who made them and the machines they built to do it. People who were arrested, sent to the gulags, came out, and settled down to do it all over again.
And you never thought Rock around the Clock was all that.
But also on display at Bone Music was the way that people who might want to listen to such things were portrayed in the press, or even in films. Negatively, as I am sure you can imagine.
Yes, much of the text in the exhibition is in English as well as Russian. But then the Garage art gallery is very hip.
Very apt.
Our favourite bit of the whole Bone Music exhibition was the room set up to simulate a bootlegger’s lair. The reason? Everything in the room was touchable. All those little drawers had bits and pieces in. Tattered ID documents, valves, more valves, bits of string, technical drawings, some wire, valves, stamps, a tin of old kopecks, and valves. We opened the tea caddy and smelled the leaves inside. We handled the freshly produced X-ray records. We looked though the old exercise books of carefully handwritten catalogues. Hours of fun.
Bone Music is on at Garage until 14th October, but if you don’t catch it before then, the X-Ray Audio project goes on tour internationally quite often. See if you can check it out when it comes to you, because the sheer ingenuity of people generally, and the indomitable spirit of those suppressed should be celebrated.
And then there’s music. You should definitely remember the days it didn’t die.
To help you, here is Stephen Coates doing a TED talk about Bone Music and his X-Ray Audio project.
More information
The exhibition’s page on Garage’s website (in English).
This is what the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has to say about the Beat generation.
Address: 9/32 Krymsky Val, 119049, Moscow, Russia (inside Gorky Park).
Opening: 11am to 10pm all week to 14th October 2017. Other exhibitions at Garage also exist.
Admission: 300 roubles for adults, free for children under 11.
Getting there: The two nearest metro stations to Gorky Park are Oktyabrskaya (orange line) and Park Kultury (red line).
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Bootleg records made out of old X-Rays…wow. But whilst it sounds so cool to us nowadays, it’s worth remembering just why people had to go to such lengths. Thanks for an interesting and informative post!
I find this kind of thing both profoundly depressing, and profoundly heartening at the same time.
I love the artistry behind the concept of this! Crazy to think of the lengths people went to in order to get their music out there for people.
They are very compelling objects, aside from the backstory. Not surprised it’s an art gallery that is hosting them really.
Interesting! Amazing the lengths they went to to copy the music. It’s great there is a museum to show off such ingenuity!
Well, a project really, and non-permanent exhibitions. But is is good the story is being preserved.
That is so interesting and very resourceful to use x-rays!
It really was!
I’m ashamed to say I’d not even heard of X-ray music, but then, I’m not that cool. Brilliant idea though, I can see why it took off. Love the sound of the lair too, I’d really like to see this exhibition, you whetted my appetite. #citytripping
No reason why you should have heard of it really – the first people Coates asked were Russian, and they had no idea!
This is fascinating! The exhibition sounds very cool, and it’s always good to be able to get your hands on the exhibits, but a reminder of just what lengths people had to go to simply to hear music – although I find it heartening the lengths they did go to. Truly rock and roll rebellion… Thanks for linking up with #citytripping
It’s one of those odd dilemmas in that if you want to be rebellious, then you need opposition and obstacles to overcome for it to be really cool. But the price here…
What a cool back story. So risky, so colourful, so eery! Fascinating in every respect. #citytripping
The records *are* rather oddly attractive as well as interesting. I do sometimes wonder what I would think If I recognised am X-ray of me or mine, especially after circs which caused your head to get X-rayed.
So very very interesting! The records now are like works of art of themselves. I love that the exhibition has such a hands on room to really immerse yourself in these underground hipsters. Although I’m not sure time in gulag would be worth a little Elvis? That’s dedication. Thanks for sharing with #FarawayFiles, Erin
We all have a personal line in the sand. It’s interesting what people will go to the wall for.
This is so interesting! I’m curious show you even found out about the exhibit… Looks like an interesting way to spend a morning or afternoon. 🙂
Well, I follow a fair number of Russia themed facebook pages and twitter accounts, including the one of this gallery (which is very well known in Moscow). I must have seen a post/ tweet, and the rest is history…
It is a fantastic post, like many I read on your blog! Would love to see this exhibition too! Hope it will travel to Europe too!
Thank you for the compliment! It’s done London for sure already. I bet it’s on its way somewhere else soon too.
Music has always been important to me but this exhibition shows just how critical that form of expression is to how people perceive their freedom. Such a fascinating read and I hope the exhibition tours near me or I make it to Moscow one day. Thanks for sharing on #FarawayFiles
I love the way the X rays look, like a work of art in themselves. Sounds like a fascinating exhibition. Thanks for sharing on #FarawayFiles