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Olev Muska : Associate Artist

I'll not be boxed in!

Photo of Olev Muska

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Artist website: https://www.olevmuska.com.au/

Artist website: http://www.olev.com.au

Artist website: http://www.kiri-uu.com

Olev Muska is an Australian-born composer and artist of Estonian and Russian heritage.

Drawing little distinction between artforms and rejecting typecasting, his art extends across music composition and production, sound design, musicianship, live performance, fine art, graphic design and illustration, desktop and web publishing and publications, public art, photography, short film making, archiving and poetry.

The majority of his compositional output is invariably self-taught, self-designed, self-produced, self-performed, self-published and self-promoted.

With a trajectory in music making closely paralleling milestones reached in the general evolution of popular electronic music, his creations reside on reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, vinyl, CDs, DVDs, computer hard drives, smart phones and tablets, the worldwide web, occasional scribbles and chord charts and in personal memories.

A tiny fraction has been self-published under his own personal imprint, on his artist-run Estoterix label (established in 1980) or released / re-released on a couple of independent labels. As well, there are a few compilations out there on which his music appears. Discogs holds information relating to these official releases under the headings of Olev Muska, Estoterix and Kiri-uu.

Community cultural development has featured significantly in or alongside Muska's commercial work, diverse teaching engagements and personal creative output. He has been instrumental in setting up multimedia facilities and implementing projects and programs on behalf of local government, local libraries, the disability sector, youth services and university, for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

Created as an outsider from Australia, the pioneering single Tuljak (1980) and Australia Council funded album Old Estonian Waltzes (1985) have nonetheless sealed his fate as Estonia's first electronic folk music artist. In the lineage of modernising the genre, Muska is known for his reworking of Estonian and kindred Finno-Ugrian folk music, whether completely from scratch, using traditional sources or through reinterpreting the music of other arrangers, most notably that of Estonia's Veljo Tormis.

Although a certain percentage of his output has its origins in folk and traditional musics, a good deal of it is in reimagined form that is often experimental in nature, utilising contemporary technology. His Estonian compositions come from a uniquely expatriate Australian viewpoint.

From the early 1970's onwards, lots more stuff is awaiting release. Muska is currently in the process of cataloguing his entire musical oeuvre spanning more than 50 years. Meanwhile, for occasional new works and remixes, check out Soundcloud and his video postings.


Olev Muska — current to December 2021