“Here, in this small transit town, everyone is peaceful and focused in the evenings. Nothing changes, nothing special happens. Just a silent contemplation between loneliness and solitude in the endless cycle of being.
I’m all alone here. I’m invisible. But I exist.”
Speechless autumn stories of despair, delight and melancholy, told through outdated timbres and simple pieces of melodies, as if torn from distant years, forming a new mosaic. There are no characters here, but there is experience of the past that they relive over and over again. There are no voices here, but emotions. There are no claims to any style and neatness here, but there is a sincere and simple-minded attempt to resurrect in memory the precious moments of bygone years, of which only an echo remains fading in the era of its generation. An echo floating in the void, filled only with ghosts, shadows and multiple reflections, ready to merge into a discordant farewell hum.
Written: 2005 / Released: October 12, 2025
I’m all alone here. I’m invisible. But I exist.”
Speechless autumn stories of despair, delight and melancholy, told through outdated timbres and simple pieces of melodies, as if torn from distant years, forming a new mosaic. There are no characters here, but there is experience of the past that they relive over and over again. There are no voices here, but emotions. There are no claims to any style and neatness here, but there is a sincere and simple-minded attempt to resurrect in memory the precious moments of bygone years, of which only an echo remains fading in the era of its generation. An echo floating in the void, filled only with ghosts, shadows and multiple reflections, ready to merge into a discordant farewell hum.
Written: 2005 / Released: October 12, 2025
About
On The Ground
It was back in 2005, and my studies at the university allowed me to devote a lot of time to music. At that time, the process of my work on the material was very experimental, I was not strong in the structural approach to composition, although the basis in the form of a verse-chorus system was used by me from the very beginning. The work at that time was based on the principle of writing tracks in a certain uniform way - I thought of albums. The compositions collected under the cover of OTG were composed almost consistently. I didn't attach much importance to these tracks. Later, there were a lot of interesting new pieces of music, and for a long time I abandoned this album because it seemed completely uninteresting and boring to me. However, many years later, when I came across it again, I was struck by how much I was carried away into that melancholic atmosphere, and these banal rhythmic and sometimes clumsy melodic lines and out-of-date timbres caused a real flurry of emotions.
Writing
It became clear that I couldn't leave it on the shelf, the material was "begging for the world" and must be published. Despite the fact that any personal feelings are a unique experience and, most likely, the material will never be more valuable to anyone than to myself, I really wanted that piece of atmosphere that appeared for some time in the past to be preserved in the form of an official release. And I started mixing these tracks. It was incredibly difficult, because according to all the laws of the author's perception, I could not part with the "dirty" sound - the emotions that were so dear to me arose largely on the basis of the usual raw sound, which to destroy by mixing meant losing the magical connection with the past. It was necessary to treat the material as carefully as possible, while trying not to sacrifice the conditional sound quality. As a result, a compromise option was chosen, taking into account both approaches as much as possible.
Mixing
The shooting for the cover took place in an amazing location near the Gate of Golden Ring. It's a place that feels exactly what the album implied. There were warm days at the turn of summer and autumn, the intoxicatingly clean air spread over the grain expanses, and for a moment there was a magical fusion of the inner and outer worlds. There were also some pleasant surprises, which I will keep silent about. I didn't want to leave at all, but procrastination could ruin the atmosphere, so everything was limited to just a couple of days, the days to remember.
The idea of the OTG cover came up somehow by itself, and when the question of design arose, I had a clear picture in my head: It is a silhouette with outstretched arms, standing in the middle of an evening field. The field symbolizes loneliness or solitude. This is in the only kind of place where, like nowhere else, one can physically experience being between heaven and earth, experiencing an existential longing that has no cause, no beginning, no end. Sunset is also a metaphor, it is that moment when only the contours remain, and numerous details are ruthlessly discarded, exposing the very essence. We can still see the image, but in a few minutes it will be swallowed up by the darkness of the night. A silhouette has no features - it is a conditional entity, because the soul has no gender or age. Nevertheless, it was important for me to show that this is not an abstraction, but the essence of human nature. The outstretched arms are parallel to the horizon, and seem to be in balance. The palms are facing down to the earth, which will one day embrace each of us.
Cover
Dreams
A careful look will notice that the shooting area is not completely wild – human life is nearby. And this is important because the concept of the album refers to human dreams. At the core of this work, a feeling of melancholic, oppressive calm, characteristic of some night dreams and perhaps familiar to some of you, first arose by itself, and then strengthened. It's amazing how realistic these illusions can be. Only in a dream can you truly wander invisible in a crowd, walk through walls and observe without affecting what is being observed. The image discussed above can be considered a dream turned inside out: it is not the phantom who sees, but we who see it. Placed in a field, it partly ceases to be so obviously invisible – despite the fact that in that world it is not seen by others, for us it is manifested in the form of a completely tangible silhouette.
Why is the beginning set by the ticking of the clock? This is a minute of silence. It's only a minute, but it's very important for a more conscious immersion in this work (of course, this is important for those who would like to join the feelings of the author himself). Therefore, this artistic segment can also be considered technical, because stopped time is an indispensable attribute of the world the recording tells about. It would be difficult to instantly switch perception to such music from something modern, wouldn't it?
A curious fact: the recorded sound of the mechanism belongs to a desktop quartz clock that accompanied the author from the very beginning of his timid touches on the field of music. At the very moment when he installed his first music production software, they were already ticking next to the monitor. And imagine, they're still running!
A curious fact: the recorded sound of the mechanism belongs to a desktop quartz clock that accompanied the author from the very beginning of his timid touches on the field of music. At the very moment when he installed his first music production software, they were already ticking next to the monitor. And imagine, they're still running!
Clock
LP
Album credits
Music, mixing: Equivaland / Mastering: M. Yarvelov / Photography: N. Parshakov / Art & layout: M. Basch
Music, mixing: Equivaland / Mastering: M. Yarvelov / Photography: N. Parshakov / Art & layout: M. Basch
I like the idea that music deserves to exist not only in a virtual form, but also on a physical medium. It kind of makes it tangible and allows you to taste it more consciously. Therefore, a small print run of vinyl records with OTG was released. A bonus track (eighth) was added to the record - this composition was unexpectedly found in an archive belonging to the period of composing OTG, just after the release took place, therefore it is a full-fledged part of its concept.
