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It’s something that’s not talked about much outside of certain academic circles, but the relationship between music and architecture is one that’s pretty cemented in the human mind.
When you see baroque, neoclassical architecture like that of Versailles or Mount Vernon, you imagine baroque, classical music. Art deco, Beaux-arts skyscrapers like the Empire State or Tribune Tower? You might imagine Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” or any one of Glen Miller’s compositions.
When it comes to more recent styles of architecture, though, people’s interpretations tend to start differing, at least from my completely non-scientific anecdotal experience. Some will see the mauve and brown Earth Tones interior designs of the 70s and 80s and be reminded of something like the work of Isaac Hayes, while another person will imagine the theme of “The Brady Bunch”, and another person will conjure “Riders on the Storm”. When it comes to the postmodern architecture which makes up most new construction, people seem to have thousands of different interpretations.
UIC, on the other hand, is one of the monuments of a put-upon kind of architecture called brutalism. The awareness of this style is rising owing to factors like the recent A24 film, aptly titled “The Brutalist”, which covers some of the things that inspired this architecture style, albeit through the lens of historical fiction. Originating in the postwar UK, brutalism utilizes geometric patterns and bare, unpainted concrete to create a distinct style of utilitarianism, while also allowing for artistic expression. This style has become infamous as a symbol of urban decay, especially in post-Soviet nations, but in the US it has remained as more or less a historic style, which, while hated by critics for its utilitarianism and supposed ‘boredom’ at times, will likely remain standing for decades.
UIC’s East campus is almost entirely designed in the style of brutalism, the main exceptions being the Credit Union 1 arena, the College of Urban Planning & Public Affairs building, and most of the University Village area. My previous article, written over campus designer Walter Netsch and his walkway-based design goes into this in more depth.
So, you might be wondering where I’m going with this. Well, much like the pairing of Gershwin with Art Deco, or the pairing of Vivaldi with Neoclassical, I’m pretty sure I’ve found the artist that, for me, pairs perfectly with UIC’s brutalist architecture.
Молчат Дома (or Molchat Doma, anglicized), is a Belarusian post-punk band formed in Minsk in 2017. Their music, which focuses on fuzzy, synth-based bites of 80s nostalgia and gothic introspectivity, has been compared to the style of historic bands from both the western and eastern spheres, like The Cure, Joy Division, and Kino, a Russian rock band from the 80s.
Melancholic and just a little angsty, Molchat Doma’s style, at least in their earlier work like the LP “Этажи”, anglicized as ‘Etazhi’, matches the aesthetic of brutalism to a T. I mean, look at the album cover of this thing. Based on the Panorama Hotel, a Soviet-era building in Slovakia, this building would be right at home on UIC’s campus.
Molchat Doma’s style fits this architecture so well for a variety of reasons; created in Minsk, Belarus, a city with dozens of Brutalist pieces, the gloomy, almost hazy style of their work gives an impression of being surrounded by, or even lost within these hulking concrete-colored structures. When I throw on a song like “На дне” or “Судно (Борис Рижий)” while walking around UIC on a cold, foggy day, I feel that hit of melancholic nostalgia that Molchat Doma was aiming for with this style.
All in all, there’s likely thousands of different songs that would fit within brutalist style; some aforementioned artists like Joy Division or The Cure have made works that would match with UIC’s aesthetic as well. Personally, though, I like Molchat Doma.
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