Thorn1

I wrote about the complex situation facing all Russian musicians lately. Then I fed the text to an AI to produce a proper translation.

The Music Purge in Russia and How I Got Caught in the Crossfire

In 2026, the media landscape in Russia has become significantly more oppressive, affecting almost everyone. I am not just talking about the widespread internet shutdowns (with the exception of government-approved "white lists" of websites), the ban on entire social networks and messengers, or the prohibition of performing songs by dozens of "blacklisted" artists. Entire themes and metaphors have now fallen under the ban.

Under the pretext of fighting "drug propaganda," a systemic purge of the cultural space began in Russia on March 1, 2026. Any mention of drugs or related topics in songs and works of art is now forbidden. By imposing legal liability for song content on streaming platforms, the authorities have triggered a wave of automated censorship that has already erased both iconic classics and modern independent music. Words are vanishing from songs. Songs are vanishing entirely.

The Mechanism of Enforcement
Due to the ongoing war, Western streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal have not operated in Russia for several years. The market has been carved up by a few local giants, such as Yandex Music and Zvuk. New federal regulations have turned them into "proactive censors." Fearing astronomical fines, these platforms use AI and manual moderation to scrub any mention of prohibited substances.

Entire albums with "incorrect" titles and songs containing anything even remotely resembling a forbidden topic have gone under the knife. For example, in March, the discography of the rock band Agata Christie was removed; the albums only reappeared after "sanitization." Key words like "o***m" in the song "O***m for Nobody" were muted or cut out. Now, there is only silence in those parts of the tracks, and the song is simply titled "...for Nobody" — as is the album of the same name. Some artists have refused such editing, and their music is now completely unavailable in Russia.

It might sound like an exaggeration or a dark joke, but the works of children's author Dmitry Dragunsky were nearly banned because his last name sounds like the word "Drug" in Russian. The publishing house had to provide proof that it was a mistake and everything was above board.

Literalism vs. Art
One of the most critical consequences of this policy is the rejection of metaphor. Censors adhere to a strictly literal interpretation of lyrics, making no distinction between "propaganda" and artistic imagery.

A recent example is the blocking of my own track, which featured the lines:

"Our love got hooked on the needle, forget it"

Despite the obvious metaphor, the mere presence of the word "needle" in such a context now triggers an automatic violation. This track, which I wrote at 13 and finally recorded properly last year, is now gone from Russian streaming services. This "zero tolerance" approach effectively bans the use of the theme itself.

I will resolve this: I am preparing a version that the censorship will definitely clear, but the very existence of such censorship in 2026 is both shocking and disheartening.

Ultimately, this leads to self-censorship. A purging of back-catalogs is underway: artists are preemptively editing their archives to avoid being deleted from platforms. Songwriters are abandoning complex metaphors in favor of guaranteed distribution, leading to a "sterilization" of creativity. Small labels and independent musicians, lacking the resources for legal battles or expensive remastering, are simply disappearing from the digital space.

I hope the situation changes someday. For now, I am watching as we sink deeper and deeper.

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Official video for our cover of this beautiful song is out

“Awash a Sea Goodbye It’s Me” is a remarkable song by Jon DeRosa of that became, for us, an exploration of memory, emotional depth, and that fragile moment when the past washes away, leaving only an echo behind.

We tried to preserve the hypnotic atmosphere of Jon DeRosa’s original while adding our own emotions and sonic identity. This video is a visual extension of the music, filmed by us in Novi Sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkCnnaMvdnQ

Credits:

Video:
Directed and Edited by: Pavel Fedosov, Evgeny Zheyda
Cinematography: Pavel Fedosov, Evgeny Zheyda

Audio:
Performance: Evgeny Zheyda, Pavel Fedosov
Production / Mixing: Evgeny Zheyda
Original: Aarktica (Jon DeRosa)

© 2026, Evgeny Zheyda, Pavel Fedosov

Thorn1, SAVL - Awash a Sea Goodbye It's Me | Official Video Official video for our cover of this beautiful song“Awash a Sea Goodbye It’s Me” is a remarkable song by Jon DeRosa that became, for us, an exploration of me...

Thorn1 / SAVL — Awash a Sea Goodbye It’s Me

Born from a January jam session in Novi Sad, our interpretation of Jon DeRosa’s ( Aarktica ) beautiful and deeply beloved song is now online. We — Thorn1 and SAVL — explored how the same emotion can resonate within different coordinate systems.

Original Mix: , depth, and guitars.

Alternative Mix: pulse, rhythm, and .

Two shores of the same sea. Released with the blessing of Jon DeRosa on March 20, 2026.

Available everywhere. Link in comments.

I first heard Aarktica Aarktica around 2005. There was an album with an unusually long title: “…Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway: Bliss Out, Vol. 18” (2002, Darla Records).

Out of the huge wave of artists I discovered at that time, Aarktica made one of the strongest impressions on me. Tracks like “Aura Lee” and “Nostalgia = Distortion” lived permanently in my player. Their sound struck me as careless yet incredibly thoughtful and inventive — full of tenderness, melancholy, and, simply put, beauty. Years later I even named one of my VK music review communities after the second of those tracks.

Until about 2008 I didn’t really know what Aarktica actually was. I imagined it as some great band like Radiohead — just younger and more promising. When I finally got unlimited internet (128 kbps!), I discovered that the project was essentially the work of Jon DeRosa, its only real member. He doesn’t have a massive audience, which makes it even more special to be one of the listeners he does have.

Around that time I explored his entire discography, including the album Bleeding Light (2005). The song “Awash a Sea Goodbye It’s Me” went straight to my heart, and the refrain got stuck in my head. Soon after, I tracked down Mr. DeRosa’s email and wrote him a letter thanking him and asking about some lines in the lyrics. As Pavel Fedosov — aka SAVL — reminded me recently, back in 2008 I was already excited about the idea of recording a cover of that track.

It didn’t work out back then — all that remained from those days was a rough sketch with a beat and a chord progression. But something else came out of that time: a casual correspondence with Jon, getting to know Silber Records (the label where most of his music was released), and eventually my own releases there. That’s a different story.

A couple of years later I met Pavel Fedosov. As usually happens, we started exchanging music — and Aarktica was one of the first things I sent him.

“I first heard about Aarktica from Evgeny, most likely through his music review community ‘Nostalgia = Distortion’. The album Bleeding Light struck me because it was probably the first time I heard how diverse and expansive ambient music could sound when built from guitar textures and live instruments. I still come back to that album sometimes and play some of the melodies from it. ‘Awash a Sea…’ is a great example of ambient almost turning into a pop song, and it’s definitely one of my favorite tracks on the album,” says SAVL.

Little-known indie artists with only a few tens of thousands of listeners around the world sometimes leave a far deeper mark on our lives than stadium-filling stars. Aarktica is exactly that kind of artist. I know a few people who would put this project in their personal all-time list — and I’m definitely one of them. Jon influenced me personally in many ways: his approach to arrangements, his vocals, and his sound. And I’m deeply grateful for what he creates.

On March 20, the joint single by Thorn1 & SAVL, “Awash a Sea Goodbye It’s Me”, recorded with the blessing of the song’s author, will be released.

Bandcamp pre-order is already available.
https://thorn1.bandcamp.com/album/awash-a-sea-goodbye-its-me

Two Shores of the Same Sea

In early January, Павел Федосов Paul fedosov (SAVL) and I got together at my place to jam and play a song we’ve both loved for years — “Awash a Sea Goodbye It’s Me” by Aarktica. From those sessions, and with the blessing of the author Jon DeRosa, a full release emerged, set to come out on March 20.

We decided not to compromise and created two versions — each of us developing our own ideas based on the same source material. At the core are the same vocal parts and guitar sessions recorded during those January days. But on that shared foundation, we built two distinct musical statements.

Thorn1, SAVL – Awash a Sea Goodbye It’s Me
My interpretation. I was responsible for the arrangement, the orchestral textures, and the “live” drums I love programming. This mix defines the original character of our reading.

SAVL, Thorn1 – Awash a Sea Goodbye It’s Me – Alternative Mix
Pavel’s deconstruction. Keeping our vocals and guitars intact, he rebuilt the rhythmic framework and added his own synthesizers, shifting the emphasis toward his distinctive authorial style.
You’ll be able to hear this story from two perspectives on March 20.

Pre-save is now open. By saving the track before its release, you’re helping show the algorithms that this release matters.

Yesterday I uploaded my latest piano track 'I Left It Untold' (from the Droneuary compilation) to Bandcamp.

To post it there, I created a custom cover. It’s based on a photo I took last year of blooming trees in Futoški Park in Novi Sad. It felt fitting - reminiscent of the cover for my “prehistoric” untitled demo EP from 2007 (second photo: apple trees in the garden near my home in Pavlovsk), where an early draft of this composition first appeared.

So I treated the artwork in a conceptually similar way.
Link in comments.

I shot this video for "Белоснежка" (‘Snow White’) at home on my phone, inspired by the aesthetics of David Lynch, Depeche Mode’s music videos, and guided by my own vision of associative imagery. It’s a mood piece meant to complement the emotions of the song. It’s already available on all platforms.

Send a message to learn more

And you can pre-order the single

Белоснежка, by Thorn1 1 track album

Hi everyone! This isn't about Thorn1, but about what directly preceded it.

From 2000 to 2008, I played in the rock band «Партизаны» ("Partizans"), wrote songs for it, and along with the vocalist and bassist Anton Cherepanov, considered it my own… In 2004, we recorded an album, but we're only releasing it now. The original tracks were lost, and this experimental release is the result of a combination of many fortunate factors. I acted as the restorer and sound engineer for this record, and it was a really important project for me, so the resulting sound is entirely my responsibility.

This is alternative rock – as it sounded in 2004 in the village of Pavlovsk near Barnaul in Siberia for three teenagers finishing high school. As it turned out, this record is valuable not only for the three participants of the recording, but also for a couple of our acquaintances, so I am happy to publish it on my page.

I will be glad to any attention.

Тени, by Партизаны 11 track album