From classical music to hypnotic techno

Mary Yuzovskaya has been known for her hypnotizing vinyl sets for over thirteen years. Her sound resonates with us at Hedon Sonance, as we love techno you can really get lost in. Her new release and recent move back to Berlin seemed like excellent reasons to do a feature on her work. 

In recent years, she began releasing music by herself and others on her label Monday Off. In October her first solo EP Sleeping Beauty Working Beast came out. It includes two tracks by Mary and two remixes of the same tracks by Blazej Malinowksi and Patrick Siech, respectively. The EP reflects the dark, psychedelic techno she also plays in her sets, steady but not particularly fast. 

Originally Russian, she learned to DJ in Moscow in the first decade of the century before moving to Berlin. The past seven years she spent in New York, playing more and more gigs. She was a resident at the queer Unter parties in that city. 

The first thing I ask the slender woman appearing on my laptop screen, is why she decided to go back to Berlin. One of the main reasons happens to be love: she married a Berlin DJ, they met at club Else one-and-a-half year ago. I suggest we talk about her musical development. I’m anxious to know what kind of music she listened to before getting into techno; where does her psychedelic style originate? 

Mary played classical piano at a young age, performing at a Moscow theatre where her mother worked
as a stage designer. So which composers made a lasting impression on her? 
“I still like the big Russian composers, like Tsjaikovski. Classical music in general is a part of your education when you grow up in Russia. In Berlin, when I first lived here, I had neighbours that would complain when I was playing Mozart in my apartment. They were fans of hardcore but couldn’t stand classical music!”.

Later, in high school, she listened to very different types of music. “I liked trip hop, Portishead for instance, acid jazz… Björk comes to mind. I’ve been a big fan of the Beatles since a very young age, they obviously had their psychedelic phases. But I think I always had a taste for weird stuff, not only in music but also in visual art. I’m more interested in sound design than I am in musical genres. I find magic in the textures, structures of the sounds. To me, what makes the music special is a potential to function as a movie soundtrack”.

So how did she get into techno and dance music, from there? 
“By going out, experiencing the music as a dancer. Before that - by listening to the radio. When I was a teenager, there was a radio station in Moscow and St. Petersburg called 106.8 FM, that played all kinds of electronic music, from acid jazz to drum ‘n bass, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That was my first introduction to electronic music in general”. 

Mary explains that going out in Moscow’s club scene showed to her that it was possible to make a living out of playing records in clubs. She had been a record collector for some time, and as a teenager had the dream of becoming a radio DJ; before she started clubbing, she was mostly associating DJing with playing records at the radio stations. She taught herself to DJ on decks given to her by a friend, practicing daily for two hours at home. Through her contacts in Moscow nightlife, she could get herself gigs at parties. She honed her skills quickly, because the bar was high. People back than expected seamless playing of vinyl records. 

What music was around in clubs at that time? 
“It was at the end of an electro, synth pop era, Miss Kittin and the Hacker were played a lot. Minimal techno was getting more popular. I liked the music on Dial Records, Efdemin and Carsten Jost for instance. Stuff by Dino Sabatini, Cio D’or and Giorgio Gigli also inspired me. And of course Donato Dozzy has always been a big influence. Around that time the first wave of hypnotic deep techno has emerged - and once I discovered it, there was no way back. It shaped my sound. This is the type of music I’m playing and producing ever since”. 

What kind of experience does she want to bring about during her sets? 
“It’s about playing music in a way that creates a shared joyful experience at a party, together with the audience. It’s about taking my listeners on a trip, or at least providing a soundtrack for a trip of their own. I always try to look people in the eyes while I’m playing, it seems you get to know them a little that way, you feel them. A good party is like an adventure, “3D” experience, you don’t know where it will take you. Sometimes the next day you think: what happened? It’s also a bit like a computer game, an alternate reality that you discover”.

About the new EP, Sleeping Beauty Working Beast. Where did she get the inspiration for these tracks?
Mary speaks in a calm and contemplative way. “I can’t put a finger on it, all kinds of things inspire me. I like to go on walks, look around, watch architecture or nature around me. All these things seem to lead to musical ideas kind of subconsciously”. 

How was the process of creating the music? 
“When I make tracks, I’ve already heard the sounds I want to use in my head. Later I spend a lot of time trying to exactly recreate these sounds in the studio. I’m not a fan of improvising, that’s not my workflow. I compare producing to studying at university; just work on it systematically for hours, getting to know the software in order to get the clap or kick exactly how I want it. I like to design sounds; my general goal is to be able to create the same element in 101 different ways. It’s like a craft”. 

How long did this laborious process take? 
“The latest track that I finished was made in ten sessions, with a session a day. But I didn’t work on it every day, so it took a few weeks. In the past, also working on this EP, I needed more time than that. I think I’m getting faster at producing”, she smiles. 

I wonder if she produces more now the pandemic keeps her from DJing? 
“No, actually my output is the same as last year. I have more time obviously, but I get very distracted by the news around the pandemic. The virus is constantly in the back of my mind. I got a bit lazy during the Covid period. I want to be in the studio more, but at the moment it’s hard for me to work for long periods of time without getting distracted. I’m also running a label, and today it’s an easier routine for me than music making, as I get to spend my time doing a variety of shorter tasks throughout the day, rather than focusing on one task for multiple hours”. 

I tell her I hope conditions may get a little less worrisome in the near future, so we can maybe enjoy her Dutch club debut. She hopes so too: “I visited Amsterdam once for a record fair, but instead of crate digging I just kept on walking around in the city, enchanted by its beauty!”

As with every DJ I speak with, I asked Mary to pick three tracks that are special to her.

“This is one of my personal classics. I use this one a lot as a closing record”.

“One of those life changing records from 2006 (the year I had my first official gig at a club), that truly defines my sound and who I am as a DJ today”

A record with a very slow build, trippy and slow paced, released on Mary’s label Monday Off. Mary: “I’m so happy to put this out on my label, because I can’t believe I got a chance to release a track that speaks to me this much!”. 

Text by André Kamphuis