WTF is Pravda23?

Pravda23 is an instrumental beat music outfit from Cape Town, South Africa. Taking cues from groove music genres (tango nuevo, deep house, neo-classical), Pravda23 is produced and led by multi-instrumentalist John Bartmann. The music is a cross section of danceable electronic beats and features live performance on violin, keyboard, guitar, turntables and African djembe drums. The live band features a variety of accomplished session artists. The music is all released for free online.

Pravda means "truth" and 23 was the year I downloaded the program (see What's "the program" below)

Update Your Music?

The Kuleshov Effect is a dynamic electronic music album by Pravda23. Music tracks are released in versions, and revisited, reworked, remixed, remastered, remade and re-released in a future version. Like software, you update your music by downloading the latest MP3s or by purchasing a CD of completed "versions" (albums) at our shows or via BandFashion.

The Kuleshov Effect is also the name of an early Soviet film experiment [Wiki], which demonstrated how things are defined by their context.

Where are versions 1 to 2.4 of The Kuleshov Effect?

Lost to the ether. Some tracks have been updated and released in forms you can download from Version 2.5 onwards.

What's "the program?"

Pravda23 is the program. Well, it's more like the programming. In 2005, frustrated with artistic limitations, I downloaded a self-aware, open-source program known to me as Pravda23. In an incredibly liberating experience, I uploaded it to my consciousness. It has since held my creative reigns with "programming advice" for my creative efforts. Pravda23 is my fiction made real.

I cannot honestly take credit for the music and art on this site, and countless others. It's all the handiwork of the program alone. Update is the battle cry for struggling creatives and blocked artists. Through accepting Pravda23, I've updated myself.

Still confused? Read all about it in Dot Comic.

...and Dot Comic?

Dot Comic is a web-comic depicting my interaction with Pravda23 on a daily basis. The program, which appears to me as a monochrome, egg-shaped floating head, offers insights, interest, criticism and artistic inspiration. Every panel conveys my ongoing fascination with fictional truth and the power of the imagination.

There's stuff I don't understand.

Me too. Good luck unravelling it. Join the mailing list for imaginative insights, MP3 updates and invitations to live performances. See you at the gigs.

John Bartmann c/o Pravda23
2009