Interview: Oksana Linde talks her new album (recorded in the 80s)
On March 15, 2022, Oksana Linde released her debut album Aquatic and Other Worlds on Buh Records. Unlike most new releases, this wasn’t something created in the past few years. Instead, her album compiled music originally created between 1983–1989, when she was in her 30s.
One of the songs had previously been published on a French compilation album SNX in 1985, but most sat in an archive of cassette tapes as Oksana stepped away from music to care for her mother. Then in 2020 the English record label Mana included one of her songs on their compilation Dream Tech, and soon she was introduced to Buh Records founder Luis Alvarado. Now 74, Oksana Linde’s early recordings have been heard around the world thanks to a digital and limited vinyl release with extensive liner notes to help fill in the mystery of this intriguing album.
Earlier this year I corresponded with Oksana and Luis via e-mail about the album, and what it feels like to release an album now. At the time, Oksana wrote to me from Venezuela where she had to battle with interruptions with her internet being blocked and electricity cutting out. Born in Caracas in 1948, Oksana’s parents were originally from Ukraine. Now, she is also dealing with the horror and sadness of hearing what has been happening to the country of her extended family as the war Russia started with Ukraine continues.
Thank you for your time. I’ve loved listening to your album.
Thank you very much! Understand that I am very happy because of the release, but that the main concern is the present and future of humanity and the brutal butchery in the country where my parents were born. I cannot stand wars, suffering of humans and of sentient animals. The world is no better than before. I am devastated, really. I try not to cry more, but it’s such a horrendous butchery.
I originally studied chemistry, then worked in scientific labs and never wanted to quit. I had to leave because toxic compounds caused demyelination of parts of the brain. I lost all memory of what I studied, how my daughters were when children, many, many events. The brain damage was exacerbated with wrong medication and I had seizures, now controlled.
So, my memory is not bad only because of my age. At 33 I did not remember many things. I studied at the university, obtaining the MSc at the Venezuelan Scientific Research Institute (IVIC), but I could not finish but the PhD because I was in a very bad condition. All is gone. Some notes on the web say that I left labs to dedicate time to music. No. I had to leave labs, and I had a terrible depression.
I wanted to continue working in research until I was at least 70. Why not? I’d keep painting, drawing, making some music. Then destiny or whatever, had for me other plans.
Your album features music from 1983–1989. When you created this music did you plan for it to be released?
Really, no and yes. I was happy to make music, and what I could record with the TEAC, and later with a modest computer and sequencers. I was storing in cassettes, hoping to correct some songs, and simply have them saved. With time and not the best reproduction equipment, I lost material that was valuable for me. I had sounds recorded to be used, and a relatively big group of what I consider interesting songs, at least for me, from which now I am not able to remember anything.
Somebody asked me in 1985–86, about releasing a group of songs. Circumstances did not allow that and I forgot about it.
When you created your early music like the song Descubrimiento, how did you record it?
It was done live, overdubbed on two tracks, as I remember. I did not take notes, or maybe some with a personal notation I do not understand years later. When dismantling my small studio to have my disabled/invalid mother for cared in my home, I had a box with very important books and some notebooks where I had annotations related to the music in progress. Very elemental notations. My husband Carlos Ochoa took the wrong box to give to a person who was selling old books for income. When I realized the mistake was done, it was too late and I had kind of a shock.
As you might know, I almost did not study music. Since a child, I used to play piano by ear. I received a non-formal introduction to electronic music at the Instituto de Fonología, in Caracas, with José Ignacio Lares, an excellent pianist and electronic musician. I call him the Venezuelan Emerson. Then, some tips about recording from Angel Rada, the internationally known electronic-ethnosonic musician.
[For Descubrimiento], first I was thinking and meditating about what melody would be appropriate for such a song that would be a kind of “image” of scientific research’s key achievements. Then, I begun to try to synthesize sounds that would be impactful. Well, that part took time. I was rehearsing with many sounds and tried to not make mistakes. Still, I consider that I could have done it better. But OK…You know that with analogue equipment of this type it was difficult to reproduce an exact sound, and I was satisfied with that one. I love the Polymoog, but I have not had it in my hands for already 27–28 years.
This is your first album, but people knew your work already. Were you performing concerts?
I participated in the third festival of electronic music in Caracas in 1991. Miguel Noya, an outstanding Venezuelan musician, told me to apply, that I could be accepted, and I was accepted. The sound engineer could not be there on time and it was kind of a disaster. I think that if you have finished songs it’s ok that people listen to what you do, but the festival had people performing live. It happened that I didn´t know what was being heard by the public because the person that used the mixer and equipment for his performance before forgot to put it back on default and the volume was extremely loud for the songs and extremely high for what I was doing trying to add emphasis to some parts. It was really not a good experience, and I never took part in anymore concerts. Instead, I kept making music at home and uploading some of the songs onto websites. Many years ago on Myspace, then ReverbNation, SoundCloud, and more recently Bandcamp, and only one long song on Mixcloud.
I have a pseudonym, infiniterra. ReverbNation, I don´t know why, has not included my name for the last months in the songs page. Something happened and my name got erased. A glitch? I cannot solve it. Nor have I received help when asked. They redirect me to the troubles page, but the exact problem does not appear there.
In the album notes, you mention Cher-ee-lee and Andrea Zarza Canova contacted you in 2019. How did they find you? Were you surprised?
It was a lovely surprise. I never met Cher-ee-lee in Venezuela before she emigrated. I guess that maybe she listened to a radio program years ago like The Intercontinental, or the one Veronica Vasicka had in NY or Princeton. In Australia, 20 years ago, Mariposas Acáticas was also broadcasted in a program. It was part of the SNX compilation in France Anthology of Tomorrow’s Popular Music, later named Entomology of Tomorrow’s Popular Music.
So, maybe one of my friends gave her a cassette with the song. I found years ago that one person had it on YouTube and I also have it on ReverbNation, and in the past on Myspace. Then she gave it to Andrea, who also liked it. Cher-ee-lee included it in a program in Madrid (Música para camaleones), I think in May 2019, and in another in Belgium (Krack) in 2020. We met thanks to Facebook. Andrea Zarza Canova, who works with Matthew Kent at Mana Records, was trying to contact me for months. Once we were in contact, she included my song Reverie II (Ensueño II) in a digital compilation Dream Tech, along with six other artists, in May 2020. We talked about a record, but it seems the pandemic or other situations did not allow that. These girls are a treasure for me.
Then Luis Alvarado contacted you about releasing your music. How does it feel to have an album out in 2022?
A great honour to have such opportunity. It is important to me and to my family. Something that makes feel happy and honoured, that it’s never too late.
I understand that the opportunity also comes because other older women who were dedicated to experimental, electronic, and electroacoustic music are being “discovered” or being given a place in that group. In the science world the same has been taking place. Women who were very important are being recognised as such in recent years. It’s incredible that they have been neglected as the brilliant and necessary professionals they were and are.
But what a world…immersed in terrible wars, slaughter, famine. The climate changes are helping to drive millions or all very soon to extinction. I feel a terrible pain due to the extermination of people in Ukraine just now. 2022, a year that can become one of the worst nightmare years of human history.
Are you still making new music?
Yes. A bit and with many limitations. None of my equipment is working. Not even the amplifier (no spare parts) and even the headphones are damaged. So I take my sounds and some free sounds from Zapsplat when I cannot obtain sounds like birds chanting, or chimes, as I had to do on Attack on Donbas.
How do you make music now? Do you use Ableton Live or Pro Tools, for example?
Now, that I have no instruments working, I have done some experiments with Audacity since 2020, but my knowledge about Audacity is not enough and still I have to learn more.
You know what happens to computers. They become obsolete. The memory of my computer is small and I cannot install large programs. I want to work with Pro Tools and years ago I used SONAR for a while. But due to the huge space I need for digital arts and music, I had to erase the sequencers. But soon I will be using a computer where my daughter Elisa is working.
As you may know, in this country we have had a brutal hyperinflation. 6 million fled due to hunger and 95% of us are in poverty. Things are complicated but with some help we are living OK. To fix the instruments and buy, for example, even headphones or an amplifier, is a luxury. So, I am working with difficulties, and that is good for the brain.
Do you prefer making music on a computer or did you prefer using tapes and other equipment?
I prefer using tapes and other equipment. I’m used to using keyboards, and I’d like so much to use them again, but making music on a computer can also be attractive if you do not have options.
I’ve been listening to your music on ReverbNation. The song Wandering Souls is fantastic. It made me sit up and listen carefully. Thank you for sharing it.
Wow… this is a very nice surprise. It was done with Audacity. I like the conception but considered that the sounds were not clean enough and some squeaks would maybe better be erased.
Are you planning to release more from your archive, or possibly newer compositions?
Yes. If time comes and circumstances are favourable.
Oksana Linde’s album Aquatic and Other Worlds is out on Buh Records. You can also hear her new music on her Bandcamp and ReverbNation.
This article was originally published in The Shadow Knows Issue #3, July 2022. Buy the fanzine here or read more at our website.
