Vyacheslav Mescherin's Orchestra or Ensemble of Electro-Musical Instruments was an ensemble led by Mescherin [unsurprisingly] in the Soviet Union from 1957-1990. They produced a large volume of electronic music of many styles, evolving with the times, but also producing cinematic, novelty, and cartoon music throughout that time. A number of his tracks were reissued on the Easy USSR series, and they'd fit in with the lounge tracks we know from various library albums.
The piece I'm uncertain about is "По набережной", "Along the Waterfront/Embankment". It was issued on a world music album ca. 1960 [oddly claiming to represent Belgium] and later as the flipside to Lenny Dee's "Steppin' Out", retitled "Потанцуем" [Let's Dance].
It's sort of a fox trot/carnival organ type piece [perhaps why they tried to pass it off as Belgian?], a medley consisting of:
- Mack the Knife theme
- The Poor People of Paris [Pauvre Jean]
- a third unknown melody -
does anyone recognize it? UPDATE it's Harold Spina's "The Velvet Glove" [thanks, Lord Thames!]
Apparently it got transcribed for brass band as well
Seems no one else recognizes the third piece...and other than being relatively popular years ago, no one is sure if it's original music by Mescherin or his band.
In exchange for your time, here are some other Mescherin pieces [yes, including "Popcorn"]
