FROM THE HISTORY OF THE BAND 'OBLACHNY KRAY'. CHAPTER 18: MY COMPUTER

The time has come for the final chapter in the story of the Arkhangelsk band Oblachny Krai — about the work that is currently nearing its logical conclusion. It's a good thing it isn't a tragic one, although such an ending to our epic was not out of the question, and what's more... but it passed me by, passed me by, and once again passed me by the other day — God willing, not for the last time.I have already described in detail the equipment I used to record all the albums, and the conditions in which I worked. Along with new global aspirations, the Millennium brought new technologies into my life and work. The Great Analog Path was dug up and buried for a multitude of natural reasons: the equipment started failing in cascades. There was nothing to replace the capacitors that had dried out in the sweltering studio heat, and the wide magnetic tape was shedding and warping. The sixteen-channel Ampex was dying channel by channel, and attempts to resuscitate it proved unsuccessful. The format had exhausted itself and died a natural death from old age, practically before my very eyes — or rather, right in my hands.