‘Easy U.S.S.R." is probably the most interesting musical release of the summer. The album, which was originally put out in 1969, is coming out on CD for the first time.

Unlike many ultramodern electronic bands that may sound a bit too technical, Vyacheslav Meshcherin's band is a bright and unusual phenomenon in this genre.

It may be a revelation to many but, long before its boom in the 1990s, electronic music existed in the Soviet Union. It was used for animated cartoon soundtracks, as background music accompanying television announcements and popular-science films, etc., though it was not identified as a genre and the authors' names were rarely known to the broader public.

Of the 22 pieces of electronic music on this album, at least three are well-known, and, what is even more interesting, they are still quite popular. The favorite of 1970s dance floors, "El Bimbo," is still used as a background tune for retro-programs. "At the Kolkhoz Poultry Farm" became famous as a soundtrack for the enormously popular animated cartoon "Nu Pogodi." Finally, there is "Popcorn," which was played as background music accompanying Sportloto raffles.

The album is a good listen, and not only because it is composed of rarities. The names of the tunes – "Dancing Dwarves," "On the Azure Gulf Coast," "Night Melody," "Fantasies on Peruvian Themes" – immediately conjure up the relevant associations. All great music for playing at a beach party.

The album jacket, decorated with pictures of the first artificial satellite put on orbit by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and the characteristic faces of the Soviet era, explains that it was Meshcherin who discovered and promoted electronic music in the Soviet Union beginning in the 1950s. Meshcherin pioneered the use of mixed consoles, sound adapters on accordions, violins, harps and guitars, and he combined the timbres of rare ethnic musical instruments using the then-latest achievements of science and technology. The ensemble of electronic instruments he established in 1956 was the first of its kind, not only in the Soviet Union, but in the world.

The records produced by Meshcherin's team during the time of its existence are enough to fill 60 CDs, but this treasure trove can now only be found in the archive of the State Sound Recording Center.

Released for the public by the Snegiri label, this album is, in all likelihood, fated to be the first and the last of its kind.