"I am aware of that this blog may be dying" read the beginning of a sentence in a comment recently posted as a response to my previous blog entry.
Yes, the speed of my project slowed down from that of a cheetah, to that of a sleeping tortoise, but no - it cannot die, not until it reaches its end and I am not done by far.
It's not the first time I receive positive comments about my blog and research, but recent events have finally made me realize the importance of this project, not only for those who are interested in learning more about the disaster, its factors, aspects and consequences, but also for those who were there, fighting the battle against an invisible enemy and who are still fighting, now to be acknowledged as human beings. We need to make them aware of that they are not forgotten and I want to help by telling their story, for more people to gain knowledge on a closer level, not only limited to the pictures painted by mass media. I'm not after romance or tragedy - I need the truth to be told and and spread, and before that has been achieved I will not be able to rest. Even if I wanted to, I would not possibly be able to: Chernobyl doesn't leave me. It's always there, hiding in the background, even if I do not think about it; even during the long time during which my project was slumbering, never further away than just around the corner.
Thus, I can reassure you all that neither the blog nor the project are dying. You can not be expecting me to write here every day, or even several times a week, but you can be sure that I will write. This far, this blog has had over 45 000 views since its start. This means that over 45 000 times people have had a reason to read my writings and I want that number to increase, because for every time it (hopefully) means that someone has become a little more aware.
Finally: I'm not a musician, but last summer I recorded the following track, about that dreadful morning of April 26th, 1986:
I've spent only a short time researching in what other ways Chernobyl may have influenced contemporary popular culture, but thanks to some allies, I have found out a lot more that I'd be able to just on my own, and that kind of defines this entire project: I want you to participate; to write to be about what you know that I don't know and together we may reach a point of mutual exchange. Thus, I thank everyone who has contributed and who will.
Now, we can understand how people visit the Zone for the sake of taking epic and dramatic photos, and we understand those who want to make other graphic works based on the site and what happened and the remains, and even those who write stories based on Chernobyl (we'll return to that subject in a future post), but music? How can you make music based on such a theme?
Stating the obvious, music is art, just like photography, painting, graphics, writing and so on, and there is a fair amount of bands that have made songs based on the Chernobyl disaster, and let's start out lightly:
This Ukrainian group is called Skryabin (Скрябін). They are from the west of Ukraine and founded in 1989. They known for, amongst other things, changing style several times during their carreer. This song, Chernobyl Forever, (2006) (Чорнобиль форева), is a sarcastic tounge-in-cheek piece about Chernobyl and how the problems still lingering are swept under the carpet. The text in the end of the video means "We want a future without Chernobyl".
For Skryabin, it was perhaps a one time statement, but there are those who've made the matters of Chernobyl into a more serious business:
Another Ukrainian group is Asfalt (Асфальт), who founded in 2006 as a more or less direct reaction to the disaster. An important part of Asfalt's theme is based on Chernobyl and they refer to their own music as gas-mask rock. Trying to describe this gas mask rock and what it really sounds like, you can say that this self-invented genre constitutes a good gathering title for a number of influences from different genres, because since the beginning of their history, Asfalt have already explored the territories of glam rock, punk, industrial/goth and even flirted with death metal. If you want to learn more about the many faces of Asfalt, I suggest you take a look at their website (in Russian only).
Their most famous song is doubtlessly Chernobyl Dust (Чернобыльская Пыль); the music video is based on a S.T.A.L.K.E.R theme and in 2008, the song was made a part of the soundtrack of the low budget S.T.A.L.K.E.R movie Trump Card (Козырь).
Since then, the group have participated in other S.T.A.L.K.E.R related productions, and their latest production, the first of their two part album Chernobyl: Top Secret (Чернобыль: Совершенно секретно) is strongly influenced by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Again you can see what impact the computer games have made.
Asfalt's approach to their chosen theme is relatively close, as the group members all have some kind of personal relation to Chernobyl and the disaster. They have visited the zone; even recorded music videos there, and in 2010 they appeared in the French-German movie Chernobyl 4Ever.
If you want to find out more about the sounds of Asfalt, albums are downloadable for free here (but beware - many links are unfortunately broken).
Now let's go to Sweden, the very country outside the Soviet Union where the accident at the CHNPP was first discovered. Have the acciendent inspired us in any other way than to 25 years after the disaster make faulty public service whinings about raindeer and mushrooms?
During my research for this article, I accidentially happened to stumble over the three piece Strömstad based Swedish black metal/industrial group Reaktor 4. Reaktor 4 is a now four years old project, which formed under "influence of volite liqides the winter of 2007".
What's to be said; Reaktor 4 follow along the lines of the Scandinavian black metal traditions, only their theme this far, is concerning Chernobyl rather than Satan. In 2008 they recorded their full length album Reaktor 4, and one year later it was released through the label Total Holocaust Records, containing tracks with titles like Contamination (Kontamination), Reaktor 4, and Decay (Sönderfall). Unfortunately, there's not much information about this group, but if you're curious about what they sound like, you may go to their MySpace page.
There are also a number of Chernobyl themed compilations released, for example Remember Chernobyl 1986-2011, which is a dark ambient project by various artists. The album was released in April 2011, and all benefits went to the organisation Chernobyl Children International.
I am sure that there are many more groups and artist to be presented as influenced by Chernobyl, but I'm forced to realize and admit that it will take me some time to find out more - thus I ask for your help: Any tips are welcome!
I asked if you know of any public works or popular culture inspired by Chernobyl and the disaster, a considerable amount of people will instantly think of the computer game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R (S.T.A.L.K.E.R is an abbrevation for Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber). The series are created by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, and perhaps it wouldn't have been such a success if it hadn't been done by Ukrianians (needless to say that everything else would have seemed like a respectless way to profit from the disaster).
Since the first part of the series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Shadow of Chernobyl was released in 2007, the games have constantly gained increased popularity, and the latest addition to the series, The Call of Pripyat was a given success selling over 2 million copies all over the world only seven months after it was released.
The plot of Shadow of Chernobyl takes place in an alternative timeline, in 2012, where a second Chernobyl disaster occurs. This game lends inspiration from the Strugaskiy brothers' novel Roadside Picnic (Пикник на обочине) as well as the movie Stalker (1979), by Andrey Tarkovskiy. Tarkovskiy's movie, only loosely based on the brothers Strugatskiy's novel, suggests disturbance of the physical reality in what is known as The Zone, and this was - perhaps not strangely - adopted in the computer game. (Nowadays "The Zone" is an overall popular nickname for the 30 kilometers exclusion zone of the Chernobyl area.).
In the movie Stalker, the three main characters are alone in the silent zone, which seem peaceful, but where many dangers are said to lurk, but in the Shadow of Chernobyl, the environments are far more violent: For example, powerful mutants may be anywhere, leading the player into one unpleasant surprise after another...
Another evidence of the immense popularity of the games, is that it's now to become a low budget TV series. Behind this, is still GSC Game World. The news were announced in November 2010, but although nothing has been heard about that since then, it's said that the project is ongoing. I will not talk much more about the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games, as there is enough information about those games to fill several articles, but if you're interested in finding out more about the games at the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R website and below, I present to you the official trailer of the TV-series:
Even though it has little to do with Chernobyl, it has some things in common with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R concept, and thus I will take the opportunity of mentioning the Russian author Dmitriy Glukhovsky's Metro novels. The first one, Metro 2033, was first published online in 2002 and then printed by an established publisher in 2005. In order to gain practical understanding about the effects of a nuclear disaster, as well as inspiration, Glukhovskiy paid a visit to Chernobyl, also did research on radiation, and the outcome was (amongst other things)...mutants.*
The year is, of course, 2033 and the stage is set to the post apocalyptic Moscow, Russia. There has been a worldwide nuclear war; the devastation is total and the face of the Earth is heavily contaminated, but in the metro of Moscow (which was actually constructed to be a safe haven if a nuclear war would break out), survivors live in small societies - every metro station is like a town itself, but the road between these are dark and frightful. Due to the many dangers, not anyone may try to reach the surface, but this is something reserved for the... Stalkers, which are very much alike the Stalkers of above mentioned computer games, so we're probably looking at another exchange of inspiration here.
Metro 2034 is a detached sequel to Metro 2033, where we get to follow the Stalker Melnik, but there doesn't seem to be any plans for further novels as the Metro series in the form of computer games have also became quite popular (as a side note I will mention that A4 Games, who developed the Metro 2033 computer game, was founded by a former GSC Game World employee about one year before the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R game was released). Also, by now, the Metro universe has come to a life of its own, in the shape of anthologies of fans' short stories.
*Radiation as a cause of various mutuations is deeply integrated in the modern popular culture, and obviously a trigger of imagination, but of course it's important to keep the facts in mind as well. Many would say that computer games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R give young people the wrong view of history, but for those who care about history, games like these have also been proven to raise curiosity and encouragement to find out what history really is like.
"I am aware of that this blog may be dying" read the beginning of a sentence in a comment recently posted as a response to my previous blog entry. 
