Pop Matters

Stephen Coates on Late Russian Composer Mikael Tariverdiev
By Jedd Beaudoin 27 January 2016

THIS IS THE STORY OF HOW A BRITISH MUSICIAN STUMBLED UPON ONE OF THE MOST PROLIFIC RUSSIAN COMPOSERS OF THE LAST CENTURY AND BECAME DETERMINED TO BRING HIS MUSIC TO A NEW AUDIENCE.

It’s 2011 and Stephen Coates of Great Britain’s the Real Tuesday Weld is sitting in a Moscow café with a friend. The Antique Beat originator finds himself drifting into the strange but appealing music playing in the background. “I became absorbed in it,” Coates says from the more familiar confines of his London home. “I’m surrounded by music every day but I felt that somewhere along the line I’d lost that ability to hear it, swim in it. I’m always analyzing it. Whenever I’m hearing something I’m asking, ‘What’s going on?’ What struck me was that this was the first time in as long as I could remember when I wasn’t doing that. I was just immersed in it.”

The music, though Coates didn’t exactly know it at that moment, was by Russian composer Mikael Tariverdiev, one of the most respected and.....

READ the full feature here: http://www.popmatters.com/feature/you-dont-have-to-be-dissident-stephen-...