Satellite Voices

Moscow / Русский

Igor Maximilian

March 7, 2012

Introducing the young Russian 100% Silk musician dreaming of a new musical world

• Text by Kristina Voytovich

At the age of 15, Igor Maximilian came across Pitchfork and discovered a world of the music that he didn't know existed before. He decided to start creating music himself in order to share his emotions and understanding of music with others. Now the 20-year-old Russian musician is working on Ggle Highs (dark wave and art pop) and Romantic Collection (acid house and Krautrock). This year he will release as Romantic Collection a cassette on the LA label 100% Silk . 

Satellite Voices: What the story behind your name Ggle Highs?
Igor Maximilian: It came up to me from the depths of my subconscious. I've always been attracted to the image of Google. There is something both comprehensive, and human in it. It's like a good book, such as "The Little Prince". It can affect everyone - both adults and children. Only this classic is interactive.

SV: If you were a god, how would your world look like?
Igor Maximilian: My world would be perfect. It is important to build an image, which people would like to believe in. There are a lot of possibilities to do. While modeling the creatures out of a primordial clay, I would think on their musical taste in the first place - it would have been extensive and impeccable. Respectively, there would be enough the music in this place.

SV: Do you like living in Moscow?
Igor Maximilian: The more I live in Moscow, the more interesting places I am able to find. The life in Moscow is like a matreshka: you do not know what to expect after the next colored shell. Moscow is full of surprises. 

SV: At what age/year  would you like to be if you had a chance?
Igor Maximilian: I would like to be in 1994 in the United States or elsewhere. This is one of my favorite periods in music. I'd even made a small and not very original album top list: Green Day "Dookie", Guided by Voices "Bee Thousand", Portishead "Dummy", Pavement "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain", Weezer "Weezer (Blue Album)". The great albums of Sunny Day Real Estate, Low, Disco Inferno, Cap'n'Jazz, UGK, Jeff Buckley, Arthur Russell, The Notorious BIG and many, many others came out in 1994.

SV: What have you recently read or listen to that has inspired you?
Igor Maximilian: I am reading “The Magus” by John Fowles. I like it, but it has a fly in the ointment: a clumsy love line. I would like to totally dive into the surreal atmosphere of the book, but I have to read about the eternal problems of the two leading characters-egoists instead. Sometimes I have a feeling that I read the blog of a teenage girl. Although, this disorientation could be deliberate.

The last movie I watched was "The Mole" (1970), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. The film is very interesting, but quite heavy.  The particular charm to this film adds the fact that Jodorowsky made it on his own money. 

SV: Which Russian musicians do you recommend on checking out?
Igor Maximilian: My favorite Russian track is Shura's "Do not Believe in Tears". Valotihkuu and Utro (Morning) make a good music. The band Peizazhi Mississippi (Landscapes of Mississippi) plays very nice Krautrock.