Between 2005 and 2010, MIR Records in the USA released eight productions devoted to works by Chekalin. The label produced four CDs and four DVDs bringing his work to an entirely new worldwide audience. The MIR label now embarks on an ambitious new project by beginning the release of a series of CDs, titled the Historic Edition, featuring previously unreleased material from his personal archives.The albums released in the series will focus on music from the middle of the 1970s through the early 1980s. It will not include any of the previously available Melodiya releases, but instead will feature material previously not released in any way. After that period of his work is documented, the reissue series will continue with further releases featuring Melodiya albums and unreleased music from the later 1980s & 1990s.As the listener experiences Chekalins musical progression through the years, they will in fact be hearing an audio documentation of the history of experimental music from the Eastern Bloc. For artists there, music and art was not about making money, but instead keeping their creative spirit alive. In Chekalins case that was certainly true and that social dynamic clearly is evident in the intensity and emotional power of this music.The life of an artist, in music and art, in the entire Eastern Bloc, was hardly about making money, but instead simply keeping their creative spirit alive during totalitarian times. In many ways, experimental music was an integral part of their emotional survival. In Chekalin's case, it was certainly true. The social dynamic of those times is clearly in evidence in the intensity and emotional power of his music as evidenced especially on the 6 discs released in Historic Edition series. -A. PATTERSON / www.eurock.com