Paranormal Music

The transition from a planned economy to the free market produced something akin to an esoteric ether in which UFOs and other paranormal phenomena also found their own audiences. In their attempt to come to terms with a changing reality, people began searching for salvation in parallel worlds. One of the most popular publications on this subject, the weekly Žvilgsnis (Sight), published in Lithuanian and Russian, saw its circulation expand by more than 35 times, surpassing 175,000 by 1993.

Within this context, the contemporary art promoter, curator, composer, writer, and poet RムMㄩNムS JムRムS, also known under his artistic pseudonym E匚卄丨ᗪ几卂　卂ㄩҜšㄒㄚ几, combined satire and humour in his ‘paranormal’ creations with atonal sound experiments and melodies, compelling listeners to arrive at a state of the ‘here and now’. JムRムS became known for his face-covering mask and characteristic shirt. Around 1997, he created and performed his work in his own style called 匚卂卄ㄖL丨丂爪. Often unjustly criticised, this pioneer of Lithuanian performance and musique concrète has regularly toured the world with his performances: persecuted by the local police in China, nearly trampled by elephants during a performance in Ghana, losing his personal documents in New Guinea, and appearing in such countries as India, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Bermuda, and elsewhere.

In 1996, JムRムS came up with the idea to start a paranormal music festival called Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S in Kaunas. Speaking with journalists during the festival, JムRムS said: ‘I want people to listen to music that is not just enclosed in a shell of human understanding. Let’s say I want to eat, I want to sleep, I want this or that. This is music that says, maybe I want to go out of my mind, or I want to go into my mind. Avant-garde music and its exploration are only accessible through nonexistence. One abstract line of measurement passes into another abstract line at the zero point. Other dimensions can only be reached through zero, only through death. Death is the chance to end up somewhere else, which is why “Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S” is the best name for a paranormal music festival.’

‘Paranormal music was defined as such because it was “paranormal” to society at the time, because society didn’t know what contemporary music was and anything contemporary was seen as abnormal,’ JムRムS remarked recently. “Paranormality” is a gentler way of describing the contemporary, acknowledging that, OK, I know this music is abnormal for you, but look: maybe it’s actually PARAnormal, and not just abnormal? Our society is a post-Soviet one, after all, and it considers abnormal something that is normal in the normal world. And I don’t associate “paranormal” with the paranormality of unidentified flying objects. There was just no more room to dig around for the right term.’

As the festival’s mastermind, RムMㄩNムS JムRムS actually understood ‘contemporary’ to be ‘post-post-modern’ music, so the festival’s innovative nature caused a stir in the media, and some of the bands that played in the festival were even ridiculed afterward. Acts were performed on stage that contrasted sharply with the Soviet understanding of music. The festival featured most of the contemporary Lithuanian bands or performers of the time, a dozen or so every day, and even as concerts ended, usually in the early hours of dawn, audiences were reluctant to go home.

JムRムS funded most of the festival out of his own pocket, driven by the idealistic goal of providing a stage for contemporary Lithuanian music. ‘In 1996, the most popular band in Lithuania was Dinamika. It’s a great band and the public really loves them. When I went looking for sponsors for Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S, one said to me: “Oh. These are all unknown bands”,’ JムRムS recalls. ‘I had some knowledge of what was going on in the world, but that was not the internet era. For example, composer Ꮆ丨乇ᗪ尺丨ㄩ丂　Ҝㄩ卩尺乇ᐯ丨č丨ㄩ丂, a friend of the festival and a strong critic, gave me a catalogue of festivals taking place in Europe at the time.’

Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S attracted all sorts of performers of ‘strange’ music.

Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S was held regularly up until 2003, and then resumed after a break under the title ᗪ丨ᗪEL丨S　P卂S卂ㄩL丨S！. ‘After several festivals I just continued the phase, I didn’t end it, because life is in death, and death is everywhere, just like its opposite, which is not completely opposite, because life exists always, and is an opposite only upon death. The current state of Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S will be revealed in due course; now it’s in the form of a surprise,’ said JムRムS, leaving us wondering.

Sound artist and improviser Ꮆ卂丨ㄥė　Ꮆ尺丨匚丨ūㄒĖ, who also took part in one of the already legendary JムRムS’ festivals.

卂尺ㄒㄩ尺卂丂　乃ㄩ爪šㄒ乇丨几卂丂, one of today’s most prominent sound artists and also a former participant in Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S / ᗪ丨ᗪEL丨S　P卂S卂ㄩL丨S！ festivals, recalls those days thus: ‘Word reached Vilnius about the plans for Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S in 2000. At the time, I’d taken a break from music and had immersed myself in Old Town bar-hopping. So, my friend says to me: Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S is coming, let’s do a project! Inspired by his enthusiasm, I began writing a piece that I planned to submit to JムRムS, the organiser of Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S; I wrote and wrote for so long that I missed the actual festival.’

The Sㄩ爪丨尺丨爪卂S (from 1996 to 1999) and ᗪ丨ᗪEL丨S　P卂S卂ㄩL丨S！ (from 2000 to 2014) avant-garde music festivals organised in Kaunas by 尺A爪ūNAS JムRムS.