Is there an American cultural phenomenon thats comparable to the Mescherin Orchestra?
That was certainly one of the challenges of the piece, finding common reference points. I think Esquivel’s stereophonic recordings certainly come close. Or if you’re looking for more contemporary examples, so does Combustible Edison. But maybe Muzak is the better comparison. Mescherin was absolutely driven by socialist ideology. He wanted to bring culture — and by that I mean Soviet culture — to people, and his Orchestra played the strangest of places toward that aim: nuclear submarines, the Arctic Circle, troop garrisons in Afghanistan. Muzak has a bit of that as well, only its mission is to make you happy in the most ordinary of places: the supermarket, hotel lobbies, public restrooms. The difference is not that big. About making the piece: We’re interested in the experience you had in putting it together/reporting from a foreign country. Well, I worked as a reporter out of Moscow for a couple of years, so it wasn’t exactly parachute-in “where are my night vision goggles?” I mean I
