Jews, Countries, Cities – Alex Rostotsky

JEWS | COUNTRIES | CITIES

An Art Project for a Live Quartet and a Video Artist

Alexander Rostockiy In our turbulent times, Alex Rostotsky stays true to creativity in its most authentic sense. The Moscow-based composer, producer, live electronics artist, and jazz bassist always tends to turn away from commercial entertainment formats. Having stepped way beyond pure jazz performance, or even beyond music performance in general, Alex is busy creating new worlds on the crossroads of world cultures.

Rostotsky’s latest multidisciplinary project, Jews | Countries | Cities, showcases his talents and creativity by featuring him as composer, arranger, performer, and visual artist.

Rostotsky researched the diversity of Hebraic music traditions from all corners of the world. That research is evident in his original music, composed as a careful incorporation of experimental electronic sounds, rhythms, and forms. The music links the listeners with Jewish music traditions from different parts of the planet: Hasidic, Moroccan, Sephardic, and Ethiopian.

These links interweave with Russian classical music influences, even including direct quotations, while the sonic side of the live show inoculates with video art. Improvised animation, created on stage in real time by a video artist, is the key element of the show and is based on Rostotsky’s original graphic art and paintings.

While his art stays bi-dimensional, its conversion into video art, interwoven with live music, adds a third, sonic dimension to visual images, filling them with living warmth, and adding to an inexplicable, mesmerizing effect.

What People Are Saying

Jews | Countries | Cities is especially important for Russia as the first attempt of its kind, also important for the jazz world, where the Hebraic influence was always significant.

Artem Lipatov Music Journalist
...leaving the house for gulps of fresh air, you just cannot breathe in enough of it to return to reality, and simply dive further in the music—the music by Alexander Rostotsky, and the live animation based on his drawings. It mesmerizes, it takes you away even further, to a new, next world, a world of bright colors, of the magic within each music solo, a world full of miracles and love.

Irina Shchetnikova Producer of the Modern Jewish Culture Festival
For quite a long time I am a die-hard follower of Alexander Rostotsky music and painting. And year after year it is getting more and more difficult for me to define: where is the border between his music and fine art? Or, rather, if there is one? Deeply national, yet absolutely international, the art of Alexander Rostotsky is full of beauty, elegance, tears, joy and poetry. For today’s world, Alexander Rostotsky is a must-see artist and a must-hear Musician and Composer.

Pavel Brun Director and Writer

On Stage

Alex Rostotsky: electric bass, vocoder, live electronics

Oleg Grymov: saxophones, clarinets
Oleg Grymov, a Russian virtuoso jazz saxophonist and composer, soloist and leader of the saxophone group of The State Oleg Lundstrem Chamber Orchestra of Jazz Music. Alto saxophone is his main instrument, but he also plays clarinet, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute.

Maxim Shibin: electric guitar
Maxim Shibin, a jazz guitarist from Russia. He has performed and recorded with many bands and jazz musicians and took part in various jazz festivals and music competitions. He is a finalist of the famous Russian TV show Big Jazz.

Pyotr Ivshin: drums
Pyotr Ivshin is a young, very promising drummer who is still looking to find his way. He is also a gifted composer and arranger. He has a very successful partnership with leading Russian jazz musicians.

Tamara Zubova: video art
Tamara graduated from Moscow State Conservatory in flute class. When in conservatory, she combined classes with studying musical video production and became keen on electronic editing. After graduation, she coordinated with the best Russian musicians, modeling their concert performances as a video artist. Since 2017, Tamara has been taking part in Alex Rostotsky’s art project Jews | Countries | Cities.