Mustelide

Mustelide is the Minsk-based singer, songwriter and producer Natallia Kunitskaya, who creates intelligent pop and electronic music, using some weird everyday samples, analogue synthesizers. Singing in her mother language, her voice is beautifully soft, sounding modern, spherical and exotic.

Natallia works her magic at her home studio in Minsk, bravely exploring the sound and her own subconscious which often bears pretty idiosyncratic results, e.g. a drum section sampled completely out of recorded cries of owls or flamenco dances.

Mustelide is considered to be the electronic princess of Belarus as she is labeled by the press. She got an award as best solo artist of the country. Her debut album was named best indie pop album of the year. Her second album “SPI” designed like a dream installation gets to Belarus iTunes Top Albums. Both albums are recorded and produced independently.

She is also getting recognition in the West, having one of the Top 30 tracks of the San Francisco based SomaFM radio station and getting to the British compilation Touched 3 with the song Spi.

In 2017 Natallia was selected for the US based project OneBeat, which brings together unique artists from around the world. She has played Reeperbahn Festival and Radio 1 Parkfest in Germany, Tallinn Music Week, MENT Ljubljana, Music & Media Finland, Vilnius Music Week, Moscow & St. Petersburg Music Week, Jetlag Festival USA, Atlas Weekend, Stereoleto, Wschod Kultury, Synthposium, Budapest Showcase Hub and many other international events and festivals.

CLASH Magazine (http://www.clashmusic.com): “AKA Minsk-based songwriter and producer Natallia Kunitskaya. On record the artist channels late-1980s synthpop and electronic textures; on stage she’s a one-woman party, singing, dancing, and waving her arms around like she’s hailing a taxi at a rave.

I’d be tempted to say that she’s part Grimes, part Kedr Livanskiy; in truth, she’s all Mustelide. In Hungarian: Örül, mint majom a farkának. ‘As happy as a monkey about its tail,’ which neatly sums up how I felt by the end of a gloriously energetic set.”

Postpravda Magazine (http://www.postpravdamagazine.com): “Mustelide cooks up thoughtful and dreamy analog synth-pop, touching on all things strange and beautiful, such as pictures of baby universes, tender love confessions to Turkish Delight (symbolizing the hedonistic joy of living), subconscious journeys through childhood memories, nameless strangers you meet in dreams and never forget, or waking up to find you’ve turned into a creature stuffed with weightless fluffy substance called Synth&Puh.

Whenever you get to see Mustelide live, you either can’t help but lose yourself to cosmic intuitive dance almost straight away, or just stand there captivated by Natasha, as she moves in mysterious ways over her numerous synths and loopers, like an experienced futuristic urban shaman.

One Belarusian critic, Tatiana Zamirovskaya, once wrote that “Mustelide is like someone who’s trying hard to pretend they’re normal, but fails to hide the idiosyncrasy and uniqueness that just pops up no matter how hard they try to keep it down”. Maybe this kind of natural sincerity, alongside the talent and dedication, is the key to Mustelide being the most successfully touring non-commercial artist to come out of Belarus in the last couple of years.”

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