synthetic piss by Artisans

The contemporary music ensemble Artisans was founded in 2019 on the initiative of a course of composers and their peers who started their studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The purpose of establishing an ensemble was multifaceted. In retrospect, its continued creative success was determined by a mixture of luck, frustration and anger, that were present in the meeting of ambitious and talented young artists just starting their careers.

An ‘artisan’ is a craftsman, a master of his craft; this anti-romantic attitude, directed against the so-called ‘cult’ of the composer-genius, eventually helped in shaping the ensemble's concert practice: providing scarce information about the authors of the pieces performed live, teetering on the border between seriousness and laughter, combining serious and frivolous art, self-irony, performativity, unconventional outfit decisions (performing in dresses and drag). And so, Artisans’ first album PARIBYS (‘Borderline’ in Lithuanian) was released in 2021.

After the ensemble discovered the work of Thomas Farmer, a composer who is unknown and whose works have never been performed, Artisans found the impulse that freed them from the conventions they previously held about what an ensemble performing contemporary music should be. For the new programme that formed the basis of the album synthetic piss (2025), Farmer’s example inspired them to try out new creative attributes: abuse of MIDI sound libraries of outdated notation software, seriousness in the face of anxiety, the use of obsolete technologies that would work only with the Windows XP operating system, reinterpreted aesthetics of popular culture from the early 2000s, the use of PowerPoint slideshows, and the inclusion of ‘sound relics’ from various sources in the spirit of ‘trash’.

This album is the culmination of the last two years of the Artisans’ creative phase as an ensemble, band, collective – it doesn't matter how you describe them – in which they have matured together as performers, as creators, and as human beings (this fact could be disputed). Some of the performances were captured by their beloved friend, filmmaker and flautist Vytautas Oškinis, who put them together into a short documentary film, allowing to experience better the witty, awkward nuances that only reveal themselves during a live concert, at the absurdity of which you cannot help but smile. However, they believe it is this unadorned genuineness, the fearlessness of making mistakes and admitting one's limitations on stage – to the audience, to oneself – turning them into a joke, or sometimes even a provocation, that has become the hallmark of the Artisans ensemble. These aspects allow them to boldly look academic snobbery in the eye.

This album features reimagined Gediminas' K. iconic song
“Diagnostikos centre”.

DOCUMENTARY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf7PnQLXCQ4

A niche label, covering the diversity of Lithuanian art music, ranging from extreme experiments to contemporary classical innovations and practices.

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