In the end of 2008 we close a significant chapter of our life with a Final compilation. The following story is somehow quite personal, but it's important to share it with you, because your contribution to the success of Top-40 by no means is less than ours!Top-40 label was established by Motor in 2002. The same year I bought one of his releases, which impressed me very much (horse traX album). In August 2004 we met by accident at the videoart festival in Moscow. In December, Motor launched Urban Soundscape audio-visual experimental festival, and in April 2005 released the first online album at Top-40. Then he invited me to join the team.

We explore the realms of many genres - instrumental and electronic, radical and calming, traditional and experimental - from ultra minimalistic ambient, field recordings, cut-up collages, groovy dub-techno, drones or industrial dance music to crunchy melodic glitch-pop, minimal electronica, rhythm'n'noise free improvisations, experimental tribal, noise, dancehall techno, modern classical, avantgarde, contemporary jazz and so on. In December 2005, Quiet Zone was born, which is now an independent project, dedicated to very minimalistic and quiet meditative music.Finally, now we're standing at the terminal point. Almost four years. Forty releases. More than 28 hours of weird music. It was always about bringing your life with joy. And we believe we succeeded. Eighteen wonderful songs from outstanding artists - old-timers, newcomers and some never-heard-before stuff too. Enjoy, and remember - we can't stop the music!Alexei Borisov + Jeff Surak: Eto bilo takAlexei Borisov and Jeffrey Surak published their first collaborative record in 2003. Three years later they released a second joint album exclusively on Top-40. Another piece is here – freaky, psychedelic lyrics, glitchy noises, bouncy kitchen percussion.The Libarians: Aiden's LamentThe Libarians is a project of Michael Hartman and his friend Sam Bailey (the member of legendary Michigan noise-punk band Snorkel, bass-player and vocalist of The Mel Bay and the founder of Karl Rove). Melodic moanings, country guitar, glitch after-effect - the mood is sleepy, but the song is VERY addictive.Metro_NM: Arab onq (flt)Another brilliant experimental ambient piece from our long-time partner in crime Metro_NM. New style, the same power of insight. You know what I'm talking about.Daniel Maze: National Rifle AssociationSometimes you shoot the technology, and sometimes, you know... The technology shoots you. But Daniel Maze is taking an alternative path — he just steps back and let the music play. And we like it so much. Warm, melodic, clicky pulsating ambient.DJ Nikto: Night cityDJ Nikto is a pseudonym of Artur, who stays behind ROZA project (Glitch ov Batumi). He sent us a whole bunch of really nice tracks — it was so hard to decide which one to pick for this project. Soon we'll share more of his amazing music with you — real smashing hits!Alexei Borisov: Mix OneA solo output of doughty warrior and veteran experimentalist Alexei Borisov. He brings some noise and hallucinogenic beats in the house! Wake up and listen.Michael Hartman: Emi Warren ExpressEmi Warren Express was created by our good friend Michael Hartman. Field recordings of Japanese railway mutate to the paranoid noise-drone loud breakout. For this compilation, Michael also offered us another brilliant track Wednesday, which is now released for free at his own powerful label Kuro Neko Music — check it out!Dave Zeal: Dear Motorist (Part 1 & 2)Another electronic magician Dave Zeal. His trademark style is smooth and stylish melodic ambient-techno. In 2006 he released the full-length album Pieces of the Broken Road at Top-40 — here's another "broken piece" for you.Zhivye Ludi: VesnaVesna means "spring" in Russian. Zhivye Ludi (Living People) is a recent project of jazz pianist and composer Natalia Skvortsova (her Summer Time project was an absolute hit maker for Top-40). Relaxing, airy, melodic jazz. The band features Natalia on piano with Anton Konchakov (clarinet, bass-clarinet), Peter Talalai (drums), Mark Gaidar (contrabass) and Michail Volokh (trumpet).F.S.B.: Digital sleeping pillsA mysterious F.S.B. project features some granular synthesis meditative experimental ambient for your paradoxial fast sleep... Don't be afraid, they will watch for you, while you're watching your dreams.AkkordIon: Revenge of Mongolian Salsa DancersOur answer to Air Drums from Outer Mongolia! AkkordIon is a duo from Ukraine/Kazakhstan, noticeable for the unique musical style — abstract and dance electronica with accordion. Now they go much further in their experiments, and we offer you this atmospheric sentimental groovy laid-back intelligent dance music.TV Pow: Somewhere in OhioTV Pow (Michael Hartman, Brent Gutzeit and Todd Carter) is an experimental underground electronic band from USA — since 1997, they're pretty active on the international musical scene. Check this vibro crunchy abstract noise piece. It was recorded live (as the title suggest, somewhere in Ohio) and edited at Michael's home studio. Quite paranoid, but very nice though.Aleksey Petin: Extract from albumHis musical style is absolutely special and very cognizable — pretty wild and brutal tribalism, analogue synthy wah-wah's, clicky rhythms and deep, visionary surreal atmospheres. Aleksey's latest album Kontakt was a double piece, featuring more than 2 hours of mind-blowing electronica, but a lot of materials were still not included. Here's the extraction.Airsickness Band: Guns for a shot, cars for a blowA chill-out cinematic subproject of our buddy DJ End User License Agreement (EULA). "It was a real pain in the ass for me to think up the name for the new project! And than everything was ready, I checked it on the Google. Damn, some bastards already used the idea in 1984 for their Disposable Air Sickness Band group... I HATE it". Not much to tell about the... hmm... music itself. Check it out.Fitz Ellarald: szFitz Ellarald is the project of Russian ambientologist and capricious composer Vlad Dobrovolski. He is not very active in releasing new music nowadays, but his archives includes many hours of fantastic pieces! Let us share with you some of his glitchy lo-fi tape manipulated melodic drones. Or dronez? Buzzes. Buzzez. Zzzzzzzzzz.Svart1: Das EndeSvart1 aka Raimondo Gaviano from Sardinia nowadays is already quite well known among weird electronica lovers from around the globe. In April 2007, Top-40 was the first label to explore this musician. His debut album davisibiliaadinvisibilia was released almost simultaneously at Top-40 (Russia), Bump Foot (Japan) and Ear-XP Records (Netherlands). Das Ende is a short noisy industrial march, recorded during live concert.Gultskra Artikler: mliniGultskra Artikler is a Russian musician who needs no introduction for sure. This melodic sentimental guitar piece is surprisingly melancholic and calm as compared with his previous more radical, musique concrete output. However, his most recent full-length release (Berezka split LP with Lanterns) also features quite melodic ambient music with instrumental granules. Well, it's always good to hear fresh sounds from your favorite artists.MWDRGS: breeth_54-fAnd finalizing this motley variegated album is a gentle sleepy microwave ambient from MWDRGS. For those who dig it, another huge dose of microwave drugs is available for you at Quiet Zone netlabel.You may wonder — ok, and what's next? Is it the end of the story? For as long as you need our music, we're not gonna stop. We already have a lot of wonderful material we can't wait to share with you! Upcoming year will bring a new story, new decorations, new surprises and of course tons of new music. Stay with us.