Marxophony
Can you sing "Das Kapital" by Karl Marx? And if so, what does it sound like? In his daring project "Marxophony", Alexey Kokhanov musically approaches the book that everyone is familiar with but very few have read.
Using his voice, electronic effects and a twinkle in his eye, he liberates "Das Kapital" from the myth that has grown up around it, especially in his native Russia. He is supported by sound artist Adam Asnan and his experimental recording and amplification techniques. In his performance, Alexey Kokhanov deals with disappointment and mistrust in Marxism as well as painful memories of the Soviet ideology. The album "Marxophony" creates an exciting new musical form between contemporary song, improvised music theatre and experimental reading.
In a way, the music has emerged from the words. The poetic passages have become like songs, like catchy tunes for me. They sound likepoetic verses, have their own rhythm and influence the music a lot.
Interview
How did you come to Karl Marx and his book "Das Kapital"? Was there a particular trigger for wanting to pursue this?
The starting point was a concert request from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow for September 14, 2017, which also happened to be the 150th anniversary of the first edition of Karl Marx's Das Kapital. I had not read the book myself before, but I thought it was a good occasion to deal with it because of its worldwide significance and also its topicality.
How did you get from there to the musical project "Marxophony"?
First, of course, I read the book. I was immediately surprised by how many poetic passages there were in the text, with beautiful images and metaphors, such as the "golden eggs" that the use value lays, or the table that begins to dance. These images helped me a lot to understand the text. At the same time, I also came across phrases that seemed very familiar, that I had heard or read somewhere before.
Lyrics
The fetish character of the commodity and its secret
At first glance, a commodity seems to be a self-evident, trivial thing. Its analysis reveals that it is a very tricky thing, full of metaphysical subtleties and theological quirks.
Insofar as it has use-value, there is nothing mysterious about it, whether I consider it from the point of view that it satisfies human needs by its properties or receives these properties only as a product of human labor.
It is clear to the senses that man, through his activity, changes the forms of natural substances in a way that is useful to him.
The shape of the wood, for example, is changed when you make a table out of it.
Nevertheless, the table remains wood, an ordinary sensual thing. But as soon as it appears as a commodity, it turns into a sensual supersensual thing.
Not only does he stand with his feet on the ground, but he turns himself upside down in the face of all other goods and develops crickets from his wooden head, because more whimsical than if he began to dance of his own free will.
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