Rediscovering Romanian Electronic Music Through Rodion GA

A few years after he was discovered and adopted by the Romanian hipster community, Rodion GA appears in the pages of The Guardian. The interview traces his life as a record collector and musician in Cluj, a city in the Transylvanian region, during communism.

We learn that Rodion’s improvisational skills – both when it came to the actual music he made, and to making and repairing musical equipment – are a consequence of having had very little access to consumer goods, because of the political regime. And we get a sense of the somewhat awkward understanding that he has of music, backed by a lot more information about his relationship with his mother.

Although this article doesn’t really go deeper than your typical story of an unfortunate genius who is rediscovered and celebrated in his late years, only to be stopped from enjoying fame by imminent death, it does have the merit of giving a well-deserved visibility to Rodion GA’s music.

If you want to read a story with more nuances about Rodion, how he used noises and weird sounds to create music since childhood, about his daily life as a hoarder, how the hipster adoption experience washed over him and how it was to perform at Berghain in front of a mesmerized crowd, try this article.