Space Travelers At Wild Mint («Dikaya Myata») Festival

We spontaneously decided to go to Wild Mint (“Dikaya Myata”) festival. We had been thinking hard whether to go there or not and finally contacted the organizers three days before the fest started and only then began to prepare for it. So it is no wonder that a lot of things went not according to plan – we even left Bryansk three hours later than it was expected. But the atmosphere of the festival and lots of kind, helpful and “wild” people apparently cheered us up.

We encamped at the Green Age site, right in front of the Tree-Rocket scene. Friendly guys from Moscow hammock workshop provided us with electricity to illuminate our “geodome”, and the staff of "Barrier" company gave us some chipboard to protect our area from powerful sound waves coming from the stage.

Loud music prevented us from hearing each other, and it was simply impossible to distinguish gentle and meditative tank drum sounds at one time or another. Therefore, we just closed our “geodome” at night having let all people interested in Kosmosky in, and in the morning and afternoon we tried to play music outside, when soundchecks were taking place. Someone spent just a few minutes with us, and someone else was beside us for hours. During this time, everyone who was concerned and open to new things could find their cosmic sound and their own Kosmosky.

A complete master class on playing tank drums was held at the Muztorg store site, where we spoke about the basic principles of sound production and showed that everyone can play a tank drum, regardless of their age, gender and musical education (or its lack). The next day it was necessary to put theory into practice, so everyone interested was offered to play the tank drum using a certain bit. The participants’ knack and skills were evaluated by Kosmosky and Muztorg representatives. Nikita, a guy with an awesome smile, and Nelly, a really charming lady, were eventually determined as the coolest "cosmic musicians" and got small tank drums. Other participants got consolation prizes – drums, shakers and Kosmosky t-shirts.

During our stay at Wild Mint we also got acquainted with Brazilian singer Larissa Baq (Labaq), and the guys from First Breath After Coma, a band from Portugal. They spent about an hour at our site, improvising and producing incredible electronic sounds from tank drums, and admiring this unusual music. After having talked to the guys, we thought they would surely find some good use for a tank drum. So as we couldn’t drive them and the instruments apart, we decided to give Kosmosky tank drums to our new friends from Brazil. In response, we got Labaq CDs, happy smiles and loads of fun!

But those were not the only tank drums given to musicians. We had thought about the performers who could also make use of our instruments and chose SunSay (Andrey Zaporozhets). As he inspires all of us, we decided to inspire him too. We also chose Ivan Dorn, as this guy is always ready for different musical experiments and keeps on searching for his unique sound.

We met with the musicians on the third day of the festival, right before their performances. SunSay was very tired after a long flight and three-hour sleep, but still happy to see us.

Anyway, we managed to produce a few tunes from the "sunny" tank drum and then left SunSay alone with his Kosmosky.

Ivan Dorn, who had never seen tank drums before, was really delighted.

Within a few minutes we taught Ivan how to play the tank drum; as for more detailed master classes, we always enjoy holding them ;)

We were coming back home and feeling that for these three festival days we had made several dozen people happy: someone had revealed new musical possibilities, and someone else had known themselves better. Thank you, Wild Mint! Thanks to everyone who was with Kosmosky! We’re going to some other festivals this summer to make cosmic improvisations, communicate with incredible people and prove that anyone could become a musician.