Missing out on the coolest events in Dubai? We know where you will be in November: The Crowd Test Festival — the very first Art and Music Festival by The Sandy Times.

The lineup is incredible: Mainline Magic Orchestra from Spain, Eden Burns from New Zealand, and a lot of your favourite DJs like Hani J, Hassan Alwan, Bazzzuk, and more.

Mark your calendar, snag your tickets, and get ready: November 16, 2024, from 5 PM to 3 AM at Monkey Bar, Dubai.

We are lucky to have Kito Jempere as our Radio Art Director. Not only is he a 100% workaholic, but also a worldwide acclaimed DJ and producer (also an author of “A Book Of Kito”), whose professional journey started – wow! – over 20 years ago. Before 2013, Kirill (the real name), as he personally describes it, “played in punk-rock bands, and jazz-experimental bands, DJ-ed everything from indie-rock to drone, assembled a disco orchestra, performed with a 30-piece orchestra, played in rooms with audiences ranging from 5 to 6000 people, worked as the head of A&R for Chicago's label Glenview Records, and ran a label”. And in 2014, Kito Jempere was born, with the album Objects on his own label, Fata Morgana. Over the years, he has released music on respected labels like DFA, Freerange, and Lo Recordings, proving the “King of collaborations” title. So, meet Kito sharing thoughts on his fifth album, musical preferences, and The Sandy Times radio project.

In 2023, I was writing a book dedicated to the 10th anniversary of my creative career under the name Kito Jempere. While working on it, I realised that during this time, I had released more than 70 records on various labels worldwide. It is quite a mountain of music. At that point, my album Green Monster had already come out, and I realised that I had been releasing albums every three years: in 2014, 2020, and now in 2023. According to my calculations, my next album wouldn’t come out until 2026. But something didn’t go as planned.

Although Green Monster was a large project, featuring 26 artists from around the world, including the US, UK, Africa, Finland, Russia and Armenia, I didn’t think I would take on such a big project anytime soon. But then autumn came, and I wanted to brighten up the grey St. Petersburg days with some creative activity. I began recording acoustic sketches at home in a completely calm state, using my guitar from my school days.

In fact, my musical journey started with this guitar. It is a custom-made instrument that I assembled myself based on my own designs when I was in 8th or 9th grade. It has the neck of a strange electric guitar and the body of a large concert acoustic. Remembering it, I started recording sketches on my MacBook’s voice memo, rejecting studio equipment even though I have everything from professional mixers to consoles. For example, we worked on Quincy Jones’s NIF-VR60 console, which we bought in the US, and on which Patti Smith also recorded. I have always had a large setup. In my 2020 album, even a Finnish symphony orchestra was involved.

But this time, I used only my guitar and my hands. Usually, I produce and don’t play much, but this time I did almost everything myself: I wrote, recorded, and even sang in some parts. And suddenly, I realised that it was turning into a product that I wanted to call Ideas For Home Alone Listening. Originally, it was just supposed to be sketches for my personal archive or, at most, a small CD release. But I made a mistake: I showed these recordings to my Swedish friend, songwriter Adam Evald. He said, “Great first song, I’d sing on it.” I replied, “Well, go ahead and sing.”

Adam recorded his part in a Swedish studio where ABBA once recorded, and it turned the track into a full-fledged pop song. Then everything snowballed: I showed it to someone else, they added their ideas. Italians from Harton added vocals, Finnish jazz legend and Warp Records best years resident Jimi Tenor recorded flute... And that is how it grew into 17 tracks that required serious work. Despite my constant busyness, the whole process took relatively little time.

This made me realise that my life is chaotic. But there are also moments of calmness in it. That is how the title of the album Part-Time Chaos, Part-Time Calmness was born. It reflects my two states: from absolute peace to complete chaos and back, creating this emotional tangle.

There was a time when I was having lunch at home with my wife and child. Suddenly, I said, “Just a second,” went to the bedroom, and before my soup even cooled, I had recorded a song. I returned to the table, and that was it — the song was done. I wrote that track right at that moment. It just came to me, I recorded it instantly and went back to everyday life.

At the same time, I still manage to take my child to school and pick them up every day when I am in the city. I probably don’t really rest. I have realised that I don’t have time that I spend just on myself. But I can explain why that happens. It all comes from family.

My father is the embodiment of super-management. Everything is structured, in spreadsheets and files. You have to specify exactly when you are leaving or coming back, and the spoon goes strictly to the right after stirring sugar in the tea. My mother, on the other hand, is the complete opposite — she lives on emotions, total chaos, no structure. I had to grow up between these two worlds, which never intersected. And I learned to combine strict order with creative chaos. This gave me the ability to finish projects. I start in chaos but know how to pull myself together and complete the work.

Additionally, in the early '90s, my dad was a real music enthusiast. He worked with electronics, made speakers for the band Alisa, and listened to everything that came into our house. We had a huge music collection on CDs — both pirate and legal copies. He listened to music with full immersion, and we had a stereo system at home. When he had free time, he would sit in the middle of the room and listen. He listened to everything: from Alla Pugacheva to Sepultura, from Nirvana to George Michael, from Bach to Aphex Twin.

This balance between chaos and structure shaped my musical perception. For me, combining five or six genres, approaches, counterpoint, and harmony in one track isn’t surprising or strange. It is a homogeneous mixture because my “musical pie” has always been diverse, and I continue to listen to everything. My wife says that my record collection at home looks like a music store because it has everything. And I listen to it all. That is how it turns out.

I have always been a radio fan. For me, radio has always been the best way to transmit and perceive material. It was my first and most important channel for broadcasting my music. When I first started forming my music bands, my main goal was to get on BBC radio. And when I started doing solo work, NTS radio came to the forefront. Radio became the primary purpose of writing music for me. Some people write to fill concert halls, some to win over fans or make money. But for me, it was always about getting my music played on the radio.

What interests me is the so-called “radio format” — it is not music consumed like fast food on streaming services, and it is not the kind sold by the millions. It is music chosen by a radio host — someone who has gone through countless tracks, with a refined taste and the ability to find those hidden gems. When such a curator chooses your track for their show, it is especially valuable to me. The radio audience is also open to new things, ready to discover something fresh. That is why radio has always been a significant part of my work as a musician.

Another important point is that my career in Saint Petersburg also started with radio. We had an electronic radio called Radio Zapyataya, back in 2007. It was one of the first internet radio stations in Saint Petersburg. We launched it in an attic on the Petrograd side. Different cultural figures of Saint Petersburg of that time came to me: DJs, musicians. I gave them airtime, we broadcasted through Winamp, and it was a real live broadcast, even though only about 20 people listened to us. It was very underground, but I loved it.

Now, radio in the Arab Emirates represents a new free zone for the global music scene. The world has become more divided due to political and military situations, and it has become difficult for many to gather under one brand. The UAE has become a place where music can freely unite people and expand their consciousness without the use of any psychotropic substances. Music is a universal language, understood without words, through melodies, rhythms, and sounds.

For me, it is an opportunity to continue strengthening the connection with the global and local community, bringing them together, giving people the chance to share their culture, emotions, and experiences through music.