Scary Beautiful - DJ Nastia’s audiovisual project created in collaboration with Ballantine’s has been back with new episodes and an exciting second season. It has been a whirlwind of new music and hauntingly mesmerizing locations. The season finale of the second season takes place in the ruins of Prince Palace Sangushky located in Izyaslav, Khmelnytskyi Oblast.

The construction of the palace was initiated by the patron and industrial magnate Pavlo Sangushko. The baroque complex was initially designed by architect Paolo Fontana. After the death of Pavlo Sangushko in 1790, the construction of the palace was continued by Barbara Sangushko who financed the project and hired a new architect - Jacob Fountain. Completing the palace took more than 15 years due to the lack of competent local workers and a lot of materials were brought in from far away. At the end of the 19th century, the palace was sold to the Russian authorities and it became the property of the Russian military, which turned it into barracks and military warehouses. In 1963, the building was registered as an architectural monument of national importance. The restoration of the palace was planned in the 1980s, yet, unfortunately, the project was never funded.

It’s hard to imagine that the Sangushky palace was once a luxurious baroque style manor. The interior of the palace was decorated with family portraits, paintings by the Flemish school, and included a collection of Polish and English engravings. The rooms were decorated with colored wallpaper. The ground floor consisted of thirteen rooms intended for entertainment, reception of guests, and sleeping. One of the rooms had four mosaic columns. The floors in six rooms were tiled. The staircase of the main lobby led to a small hall with two columns, which opened the door to the hall. There were three halls on the second floor and eight rooms, two of which were decorated with mosaics. The once majestic Barocco palace is currently abandoned and stands in ruins.

Following Nastia and her mission to promote rising and promising underground artists, the DJ and label owner continues to share new underground music and has prepared a powerful techno mix (техно микс).

The joint project of Anastasia Topolska (Настя Топольская) and Ballantine’s continues to acquaint the audience with the fascinating places of Ukraine and opens up techno and electronic music to the world. Scary Beautiful was first launched on November 24, 2020, and presented five episodes shot at five unique locations in Ukraine, including the Morozovsky Quarry, Chernobyl-2, Tarakanivsky Fort, Carpathian mountains, and the ArcelorMittal factory. The first season of Scary Beautiful had more than 300,000 views and received the support of such global media platforms like MixMag, ResidentAdvisor, Electronic Groove, DJ Mag Italia, and many others.

Nastia once again played DJ sets at each location which consisted of techno music (techno set, techno mix) of unreleased tracks by Ukrainian and foreign electronic producers. Subsequently, the selected songs will be included as part of soon to be released LPs on Nastia’s label NECHTO.

"NECHTO released 5 releases of the first episodes of Scary Beautiful, and after the open call of the second season, I received 4 times more demo tracks than the first time. The project resonates with the public and continues to support the global music community, giving beginners a chance to present themselves in the world arena, ” said Nastia.

As the world is slowly getting back to normal after the pandemic, Nastia DJ continues to support the global music community and club music by exposing fresh and upcoming talents and revealing new underground techno. Nastia has been active in supporting the scene during the global lockdown and has collaborated with such platforms as Beatport, and has created her own projects True Talk and Scary Beautiful. Scary Beautiful is aimed to not only support new artists but also holds an objective of discovering our world anew and seeing it from a perspective that is so frightfully enchanting.