#novyi lef

[euanlynn]

Spent this afternoon starting to record some new NOVYI LEF stuff. It’s a long time since we released anything new, so it feels great to start things moving again.

[thatsagreatpainting]

[grupaok]

Aleksandr Rodchenko’s cover design for Novyi LEF 3–4, 1927, showing the 1917 dismantling of the monument of Tsar Alexander III. 

[euanlynn]

Surprise! There’s a new NOVYI LEF live single and it’s out NOW!

Back in May last year, we were lucky enough to be asked to play in the Hatton Gallery as part of that year’s Late Shows events. The Hatton has hosted some incredibly important modernist art exhibitions, such as Man, Machine and Motion by Richard Hamilton, and an Exhibit by Hamilton, Lawrence Alloway and Victor Pasmore. We’ve always been very heavily influenced by the art of this era, and so to be able to perform in the same space where those groundbreaking works had been shown in the mid-20th century was very, very special. We wanted to mark playing such a special gig, so we’ve released recordings of two songs we played that night - one about Newcastle’s modernist heritage, and one about Russian Constructivist and Suprematist art.

They’re up to listen & download via Bandcamp, or on all streaming services now.

The brilliant artwork is by Joe Munsey, and combines a photo of us performing with some archival material of these past exhibitions in the gallery, tying everything together beautifully. Tom Joy mastered it all and got it sounding as good as possible (it’s a very reverby space!).

1: Artwork for Live At The Hatton Gallery by NOVYI LEF

2: Man, Machine and Motion (1955) by Richard Hamilton installed in the Hatton Gallery

3: an Exhibit (1957) by Richard Hamilton, Victor Pasmore & Lawrence Alloway, installed in the Hatton Gallery with Hamilton (left) and Pasmore (right)

4: NOVYI LEF performing in the Hatton Gallery, Saturday 18th May 2024. Photo by Jenny Alderson.

[euanlynn]

Some incredibly cool shots of the latest NOVYI LEF gig at The Black Bull, Gateshead, by the legendary Dave “nostalgia_kid” Hall

[euanlynn]

Very excited to say that NOVYI LEF will be performing at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle as part of The Late Shows this Saturday, the 18th

We'll be performing throughout the night, in the same gallery space where some legendary exhibitions have taken place, such as Victor Pasmore & Richard Hamilton's an Exhibit (to which our poster above is indebted). The gallery is also home to Kurt Schwitter's final artwork, the re-sited Merz Barn wall.

I'm incredibly excited for us to perform amongst these resonances and legacies of modernism. We'll be playing some regular tracks, and some improvised pieces using archive material relating to the gallery's history.

I hope you can drop in and catch us!

Poster design by myself (after a poster for an Exhibit), photo by David Hall

[euanlynn]

Putting on a gig - did a couple of posters. Left one is a painting by me, right one is by Kazimir Malevich.

Facebook event here

[euanlynn]

My new band, NOVYI LEF - named after the Soviet art publication edited by Rodchenko and Mayakovsky - have just put out our first “proper”(ish) recording, of our song Old Flo.

As a band, we describe ourselves as producing “electroclash with a modernist conscience”, aiming to reconcile the politics of art and architecture with the immediacy of punk, mediated through analogue synthesisers.

Old Flo was the nickname given to Henry Moore's sculpture Draped Seated Woman (1957-8), which was bought by London County Council and placed on the then-new Stifford Estate, a council estate in Tower Hamlets. The acquisition of a public sculpture by such a prestigious artist for a council estate is unthinkable now, and indicative of the attitudes of the period, where housing for everybody was seen as a priority, and the arts were seen not as the preserve of a wealthy elite but something to be owned and enjoyed by all.

In 2012 the decision was taken by the leader of Tower Hamlets council to sell the sculpture - this lead to a dispute as to who owned the sculpture, and several campaigns to prevent the sale of the sculpture and keep it in public hands.

The campaigns were successful in their aim, in part due to the leader of Tower Hamlets council being impeached due to corruption, and his successor pledging to cancel the sale.

Old Flo now resides at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, on long-term loan from Tower Hamlets Council.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draped_Seat…_1957%E2%80%9358

For more on NOVYI LEF (the band, not the art journal):

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