History Thehappymask

One-man post-rock/post-black metal/shoegaze project from Russia.

Info from http://www.farfrommoscow.com/articles/thehappymask-mermaids-of-the-lipetsk-shed-and-dancedancedance.html :

The gentleman behind that willful anonymity (and stylistic run-around) can be unearthed on at least one domestic social network, but even there he hides behind the nickname of "Constantine Horizon." Self-portraits, visual or textual, do little to increase our database of objective information; silhouettes and saturated colors hide various faces. Obscurity offers broad appeal, in several senses.

In speaking of his musical development, Constantine shows nothing of the purposeful rhetoric that drives the local economy. Translated from the Russian, his self-declaration instead reads: "Basically speaking, this is my own, modest musical project. It came into being very spontaneously at the start of last summer - in a town that doesn't exist[!]. This is music written under the influence of my private emotions and aspirations, but [despite the overarching melancholy] it's full of hope that the material will improve."

The only other thing these shoegazing instrumentals offer in terms of specificity is a small poem, accredited to an anonymous author and written to an unnamed female addressee. Constantine has uploaded it to one of his networking pages. Turned into English prose, it asks a reader to save "magical beauty" from the "illusion of those who say you're eternal or that happiness lasts forever." The same text also warns its addressee that perfection is an unobtainable state.

Paraphrased, these couplets assert that any striving for idealism will be a constant, increasingly sad undertaking, one that will outstrip our time of both physical and emotional wellbeing. And should guidance or company be sought on that long, miserable path, it might come from the spirit of Kurt Cobain, whom Constantine quotes as a source of lasting inspiration. Consolation comes, apparently, from Cobain's assertion that joyless - though dignified - dreams are preferable to the mindless distractions of urban nightlife. Sadness is better than (happy) self-delusion.

http://www.myspace.com/thmshoegazing

http://thehappymask.bandcamp.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/thehappymask/227738733929933

Demo: http://ifolder.ru/25118724

Demo II: http://ifolder.ru/25470060

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