Soviet Reunion

[2004]
Lyrics & Music by James Earthenware

This song is partly about the tragic life of Léon Theremin, inventor of one of the of the first electronic instruments in the 1930's. He ended up owing too much money to banks to continue developing his futuristic devices. So he returned to Russia, only to be thrown into a concentration camp until he was released and forced to invent things of Military significance (such as the world's first bugging device).
I brought Albert Glinsky's biography of Theremin but I couldn't read it because it was too depressing. It is a great injustice that of the smartest people of the last 100 years could not find the freedom to pursue his dreams in either "Democratic" or "Socialist" states due to the respective economic and ideological restrictions that each culture imposed to discourage individuals them from pursuing anything idealistic or radical.
Even in the Soviet Union, none of his contributions could be recognised by the state because officially he didn't even exist and all the work he did was top secret.
Most of the actual lyrics are about a friend's experience living with a mentally handicapped woman called Olga. Although she had apparently escaped the horrors of Soviet institutionalisation, being here in Australia she probably wasn't much better off as she had been left to fend for herself. Eventually her estranged daughter returned from Chicago, sold Olga's house and stuck her in a nursing home before returning to Chicago to leave her mother die alone.
The sample at the start is the death of Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov during the re-entry of Soyuz 1 in 1967. As far as we know the sample is copyright free...if anyone can prove otherwise we will remove it from the mix.
If anyone wants to use the same sample in thier own tracks go to JB HI FI and buy Sound Effects 2 compact disc for 10 dollars. SP11012 (Digimode LTD - 1995) Most of the environmental sounds on these discs are terribly recorded (Ridiculous hiss and background noise) but if you buy a few discs your chances improve of getting something usable.
Overall, "Soviet Reunion" about the governments not caring for individuals welfare (Democratic or Socialist) and people dying as a result. Then years later the governments try and smooth it over by proclaiming those they inadvertently jailed or killed as "Heroes" or as is the case with Islam "Martyrs"..