MARK TURNER holds on tight for a mesmerising display of Neath-born ragtime virtuosity
Sad glimpses of an era gone by
Bleak documentation of the remnants of the Soviet period is made soulless by an absence of human beings, writes JOHN GREEN
(L to R) Worker and Kolkhoz Woman sculpture by Vera Mukhina, 1937, Moscow; abandoned office for the construction of the Nadezhda (Hope) factory in Norilsk, Russia; Shaybale housing estate, built in 1974, Novokuznetsk Russia Built in 1974
[Arseniy Kotov] 
ALAN MORRISON introduces a UK poet whose despised daytime occupation provides the subject for his writing
MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
PAUL DONOVAN recommends three new books that explore the human relationship with nature
Doomed adolescents, when the missing person is you, classic whodunnit, and an anti-capitalist eco-thriller
WILL STONE takes a ticket to indie disco heaven, but misses the rarely performed tunes
Soviet Seasons
By Arseniy Kotov
Fuel Design & Publishing
£24.34
THIS is the follow-up volume to Kotov’s debut Soviet Cities. It is an odd collection of photos, all in colour, featuring Soviet-era urban landscapes of housing estates and industrial sites, interspersed with murals, mosaics and monumental sculptures, many in a state of semi-dereliction. He covers four areas of the post-Soviet republics – Siberia, Ukraine, European Russia and the Caucasus.
Each area is separated incongruously by season, but you would be hard-put to guess in which season any one of the photographs was taken, as they are all drained of real colour, mostly sepia-toned, taken at dusk, night-time or under grey skies. The viewer is confronted with almost identical images of densely packed, faceless housing blocks, seemingly dumped into the landscapes.
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JOHN GREEN is stirred by an ambitious art project that explores solidarity and the shared memory of occupation
