Utrenja Esemble is a one man Electronic Project based in Melbourne Australia. Influenced by the likes of Penderecki, Gorecki, Synthwave, Tangerine Dream, Popol Vuh, as well as Russian Orthodox Liturgical Chant, Utrenja Esemble is not trying to change music, nor even trying to start a new revolution, because at the end of the day it is just a new feeling.
Where are you based?
I am based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
How long have you been making music?
I have been making music for several years right now, and I have already released music under a different name, but with the Utrenja Esemble name, I am wanting to take myself further creatively.
What genre would you consider your music to be?
That is a very good question, because I really don’t have one particular genre for my music, yes it is heavy in Electronics and all that, but I believe there is a lot more that my music is trying to convey, to say the least.
What inspired you to pursue a career in music?
I happened to be very interested in music since I was very young, but it was not until in my early teens that I really wanted to go in that route, especially with tools like Garage Band and Youtube as well as the various streaming sites and the fact that you can self-publish your music more easily now, I just couldn’t miss out on that opportunity to express my art.
What are your biggest musical influences?
I would have to say that the biggest musical influence for this project is the composer Krzysztof Penderecki, especially his composition called Utrenja which is where the name Utrenja Esemble came from, maybe the darkest and most terrifying piece of music that I have ever heard, and I have heard Merzbow, which to me that is kind of child’s play in comparison. I also happen to love early Electronic music like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, I also love myself some Synthwave and, well, as my current personal music tastes lie, I have been mostly listening to Russian Orthodox Liturgical Chants, which Utrenja Esemble does incorporate some influences from that, which I think makes the music very unique in that way.
Are you signed to a label or are you an independent artist?
I had been looking for labels to take my music, but at the moment, and maybe for the best, it is mostly an independent venture, sometimes with a mock label, but it is all me for the most part, no other input.
What have been the biggest challenges in your music career?
The biggest challenge that I had to face when it came to music was visibility, because the music industry, in this day and age, is literally non-existent at this point, I mainly do it as a hobby, and even to find some buzz from certain corners, as well as to find a little corner that would actually put this album on repeat or praise it to unrealistic levels, it can get hard to find a real audience, so what I have learnt is that it can come naturally, or it can take years or even decades for people to really look into a type of music which you see right now all over the internet with forgotten and long out-of-print music being put to Youtube, finally finding the audience that it struggled to find in, lets say, for example, an album released in 1968, there is lots of hope.
How many songs or albums have you released to date?
With the amount of music that I have released for Utrenja Esemble, not much, I have released a self-titled demo as more of an exercise of where I would want my direction to go next, but with Spirit Of The Age it is more or less the beginning.
Can you tell us a few things about your latest release?
With Spirit Of This Age, it is more polished than the demo, which I find to feel there are many problems with the structure of even some tracks since beforehand I was making more Classical inspired music under the Sergei Koslov banner, it was kind of a new thing for me, but while I do not find the final product perfect, I think Spirit Of This Age is where I feel that I made something that I can be proud of.
Any plans for new music or upcoming projects we should know about?
I may release more music under the Sergei Koslov banner, I was recording some Organ Sonata’s as I believed that the organ compositions was going to be direction for that project from now on, as with Utrenja Esemble I could say this won’t be the last of that project, as well as maybe some new future projects under different names.
