Something about shoegaze – dreamy neo psychedelic indie-rock synonymous with early ’90s British bands like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive – had stirred a generation of young Russians. Groups like Gnoomes, Your Friends Polymers and Aerofall were each in their own way reviving the swirling, distortion-blasted sounds of the genre also known as dreampop (which, for a cultish fanbase worldwide, never went out of fashion).
Signed to the UK indie label Club AC30, St Petersburg’s Pinkshinyultrablast were gathering interest in the blogosphere and mainstream music media. Those bands able to obtain the necessary foreign travel visas – difficult then, all but impossible today – toured Europe and beyond.
Levshin and Guselnikova moved to St Petersburg to become a part of it. “I didn’t expect that bands from Russia could do these things,” Levshin remembers thinking. “To go on tours in Europe or in the USA, in Japan. I saw this, and I decided to also try to create a band. In Siberia, I played only in two cities. It was a big dream, to go on tour.”
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In St Petersburg, Levshin and Guselnikova added bassist Dmitriy Marakov and drummer Sergey Vorontsov. Blankenberge’s shoegaze pocket epics started to open doors. Between 2017 and 2021, they released three albums, Radiogaze, More and Everything, which sold thousands of copies. Blankenberge toured everywhere they could, from Poland and the Czech Republic to the Baltic states and Germany. Save for visa problems, they’d have played the US too.
Covid-19 lockdowns curtailed their movement, but as restrictions eased, plans were afoot for Blankenberge’s first UK shows. Then, catastrophe: “I had some fears that our government could make some crazy thing happen,” says Levshin. “Then it happens.”
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The attack on Ukraine in 2022 “cancelled everything,” as he puts it. Levshin opposed Russia’s action and posted on social media to say it. “I wrote some messages that I was against the war,” he says. “I had some comments from Russian listeners that I was wrong.” He began to grow anxious of reprisal. “I’m not a political activist,” he says, “but I was afraid that in the morning, some people might come to my house and say: go with me.”
In August 2022, Levshin and Guselnikova left for Serbia – one of the few places in Europe where Russians can travel visa-free. Bassist Marakov today lives somewhere in the EU. Drummer Vorontsov remains in St Petersburg.
“Now we are only a studio band,” says Levshin, “because we are living in different countries.” Blankenberge’s last gig was in St Petersburg in January 2020. They have played music together all in the same room just once since 2022. Their loss pales in comparison to the death and destruction the Russian war on Ukraine has brought to the doors of millions. But it’s still a loss, nevertheless.
Yet, even if Blankenberge can’t cross borders freely, their music can. A collection of songs begun prior to the war, Decisions was released this summer on the Amsterdam-based indie label Automatic Music. It quickly sold out its vinyl run of 300 copies (a repress is planned).
In true shoegaze style, Guselnikova’s vocals are buried deep and mysterious in the mix under trembling fuzz guitar. But in songs like Together, Escape, and Our Home Our Planet, sadness, displacement, hope and longing is expressed through something far beyond language. Emotions howl wordlessly like feedback.
Had history been different, then the Russian shoegaze scene’s rise might have continued much further still. Especially given the wider shoegaze renaissance in recent years (My Bloody Valentine have been selling out arenas for the first time lately; Slowdive in 2023 achieved their first top 10 album).
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Some of the other Russian bands mentioned remain active. Others, such as Pinkshinyultrablast, have gone quiet. Their last and only remaining Instagram post, from February 2022, is a demand to stop the war.
Levshin may not consider himself a political person, but when I suggest that Blankenberge’s continued stubborn existence is its own small act of rebellion, he doesn’t disagree.
“This machine, I mean the government, is bigger than I,” he says. “But I can do something to resist.”
Blankenberge continue to gaze through the window and dream of a doorway. “I hope that in the future,” says Levshin, “we will be together again.”
Decisions is out now on Automatic Music
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