Stellar Pride: Bringing Electronic Production and Live Jazz Together
This weekend, Stellar Pride performed at Stereopicnic, Krasnodar’s music and food festival. It feels like the right moment to introduce the project and explain what makes this format different from my other electronic work.
Stellar Pride brings together vocalist and songwriter Anastasia Nekrasova, known as Jeyma, saxophonist Yuri Krasilnikov, and me as the project’s music producer and DJ. Our music moves between deep house, UK garage, jazz and soul, combining electronic production with musicians who can respond to each other live.
Building a Live Electronic Project
My role is to create and produce the electronic foundation of the music: arrangements, rhythm, harmony, sound design and the structure of the live set. But Stellar Pride is not simply a DJ performance accompanied by a singer and saxophonist.
The arrangements leave space for the performance to change on stage. Jeyma’s vocal can move between intimate soul phrasing and a stronger club delivery, while Yuri’s saxophone and EVI parts bring improvisation into music that would otherwise remain fixed inside a computer.
Jeyma has been involved in music from an early age and has received recognition at Russian and international vocal competitions. She also writes lyrics and brings a background in jazz, lounge and funk to the project.
Yuri and I have known each other since childhood. By the time we formed Stellar Pride, he was already a laureate of international competitions and one of the most respected saxophonists in southern Russia, with experience in Russian and international projects. Having a musician of that level inside an electronic group makes it possible to write arrangements that develop differently every time we perform them.
Our Version of “Static Space”
In March, we presented our version of “Static Space”.
The song gave us an opportunity to establish the project’s sound in the studio. Instead of treating the vocal, saxophone and electronic arrangement as separate layers, we built one atmosphere around them. The production remains restrained and spacious, allowing the voice to stay close while the saxophone becomes part of the emotional narrative.
We also work with familiar material, including songs associated with Barbara Lynn, Lady Gaga and Randy Houser. The aim is not to reproduce the originals. We reshape them around the sound and abilities of this particular lineup.
From the Studio to City Festivals
During 2016, Stellar Pride has moved naturally from studio sessions into a series of public performances across Krasnodar.
On April 23, we took part in the charitable environmental festival “Earth Is Our Home” in Chistyakovskaya Grove. On May 21, we returned to the park for “Light It Up Blue,” a festival organized to support families raising children with autism. The six-hour concert program brought together musicians, dancers, charities and educational projects from across the city.
On June 25, Stellar Pride performed at Krasnodar’s edition of La Nuit des Publivores, an international program devoted to advertising films from around the world. The event took place at the Central Concert Hall and ran through the night, with Stellar Pride among the projects responsible for its musical atmosphere.
Our latest appearance was at Stereopicnic, held on September 3 and 4 near the Kuban River. The festival combined live music, restaurants and public art, with Nike Borzov and Medzhikul as its musical headliners.
A video from the performance captures our live interpretation of “You and I,” presented as Anton Ishutin featuring Stellar Pride. It shows the format more clearly than a conventional description can: electronic production provides the framework, while the vocal and saxophone keep the performance alive and responsive.
Stellar Pride is a way for me to connect two sides of music production that are often kept apart. It has the precision and sonic control of an electronic record, but it also has the spontaneity of musicians performing together in the same moment.
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