Up Above Moscow

Moscow City Department of Culture

Manege Association

“Up Above Moscow” is a cycle of open-air music nights up on a rooftop offering unique views of Moscow. The dialogue between musicians and their audiences takes place on the rooftop of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman pavilion, at the footing of the iconic 24-meter sculpture, a world-renowned symbol of the Soviet Union.

A rooftop time at the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is not only a great outdoor choice but also a chance to expand your music tastes, to add a new angle to your collection of the city’s best sights, and an opportunity to visit all exhibitions currently run by the Exhibition Center.

Music nights at the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman are conducted in two formats, with ‘Rooftop Jazz’ performances on Wednesdays and ‘Electronic Thursdays’ given to electronic musicians and sound designers. 

Electronic Thursday: Sergey Letov and Maxim Trefan

September 10, 20.00-00.00

20:00 – arrival of guests, admission to the rooftop

20:30 – performance

Sergey Letov is a Russian saxophone player and one of the most prominent figures in European free jazz and new improvisational music. Letov plays the saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, ethnic woodwinds and MIDI wind controllers as well as instruments he has invented himself. He boasts a discography of more than a hundred releases and has featured in many international festivals.

He performed with many leading bands and musicians, including his brother Yegor Letov who led the band Grazhdanskaya Oborona (“Civil Defence”), Sergey Kuryokhin & Pop Mechanica, Alexei Borisov and Ivan Sokolovsky, Valentina Pomonareva, Rada & Ternovnik (“Rada & The Blackthorn”) among others. He has composed music for the productions of the Taganka Theatre, the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre and other theatres in Moscow, Italy and Austria.

Maxim Trefan is a composer and pianist of the “Vezhlivy Otkaz” band (“Polite Refusal”), one of the most prominent projects of the 1980s-2000s in Moscow. He has also co-operated with Splean, Devyat, and Tribunal among other bands. He played world music and thrash metal in Alliance and Korroziya Metalla and recorded keyboards for their albums between 1990-1996. He composed music for movies, particularly Luis Orhuela’s “Dobrye Uslugi” (“Good Services”) and Wilson Burbano’s “Angelus”. He has been a permanent fixture at Vladimir Martynov’s Festival (2011-2015) as well as previously at the Alternativa festival back in the 1990s.

The duo of Sergey Letov and Maxim Trefan made their first appearance at the Alternativa festival where they performed Trefan’s musical cycle inspired by Dadaist poetry of Italian philosopher Julius Evola. The program was also presented at the Vadim Sidur Museum. This mixture of avant-garde, texts and theatre became the band’s typical approach. Soon after that, they appeared at a festival of experimental video with a program of complete improvisation featuring Letov playing two saxophones and Trefan performing on a rare analogue synthesizer. Right after that concert, Trefan said live on air, responding to a question from Program A’s editor Grigory Shestakov, “For me, it is not what music I am performing with somebody that is important, but who I am playing with.”

The forthcoming performance at the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Exhibition Center will feature Trefan’s piece “Son Dispetchera”, which was presented by the duo at the DOM club several years ago.

Instruments: bass clarinet, digital piano, Oberheim OB-8. Video: drawings by Henri Michaux.

Depending on the weather conditions, the performance may be held on the fourth floor with admission to the rooftop during the break.

Tickets are available at the box offices of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman and online at the website of Manege and Voxxter.ru. The ticket price of 300 rubles also includes admission to exhibitions on the day of the performance.

Media accreditation:
Manege Museum and Exhibition Association | +7 (495) 645 92 76 | pr.manege@gmail.com
Head of PR Office Elena Karneeva | e.karneeva@moscowmanege.ru, +7 (926) 576-40-53