09 Táto Strana Európy: Q1 2024
Our favourites from the first quarter of 2024. Cukor Bila Smert’, Simina Oprescu, Ankramu, buttechno and more!
Welcome back to Táto Strana Európy, a newsletter about music from Central and Eastern Europe. We’re changing up the rhythm a little bit this year and very happy to share with you our favourite records from the first quarter of 2024. Very diverse set of albums, EPs and reissues from all across Central and Eastern Europe. Enjoy & please support the artists! :~) More coming soon.
Adam Badí Donoval, Julia Pátá & Michael Papcun
Ankramu – Krása (Rieka)
I don’t recall a band from Slovakia ever reminding me of Talk Talk, but Ankramu have done it. The trio’s third album Krása (“Beauty”) is a personal early contender for AOTY with its sparse, measured instrumentation, its loose yet groovy songwriting, its lyrics balanced perfectly between poetic imagery and clever turns of phrase. “Majstre, dotkli ste sa mojej ruky” and “Tie kvety, tie sú len naoko” are incredible ear-worms, the former a hopeful meditation on the cyclical nature of life, the latter a dreamy ode to freedom. Perfectly executed art-rock. – Adam Badí Donoval
buttechno – lost sounds (s/r)
The shape-shifting producer Pavel Milyakov continues his streak of excellent releases with a collection grainy productions under his most well-known buttechno moniker. The breadth in itself is impressive, as we’re treated to a mix of ambient vignettes (“amb november”), a generous dose of jungle breaks (“new A-D”) or atmospheric drum and bass (“n-amen”). Delicious low-end, incredible textures, otherworldly choral samples and fantastic drum programming. What’s not to like? – Adam Badí Donoval
Cukor Bila Smert’ – Recordings 1990—1993 (Shukai)
This extensive reissue of Ukrainian psych-folk band Cukor Bila Smert’s studio recordings made between 1990 and 1993 sheds light on one of the inventive side-projects of artist Svitlana Nianio. An hour-and-a-half-long anthology which mainly covers the works of Nianio and guitarist Eugene Taran, occasionally joined by Oleksand Kohanovskyi and Tamila Mazur. It captures a unique blend of frenetic art-rock, folk-tinged psychedelia enhanced by odd, grotesque lyricism and Nianio's ghastly, high-pitched soprano. A time capsule dug from the depths of the Eastern European underground, it seems hard to grasp in its incredible scope. – Julia Pátá
Czarnoziem – Socha (Gusstaff Records / Don’t Sit On My Vinyl)
The black, dense earthy drone surface makes the Polish duo's Czarnoziem new release Socha most appealing in its sonic fertility. Dawid Dąbrowski's modular synth creates an expansive tapestry for Michał Giżycki's veiled, free jazz-influenced saxophone and bass clarinet perturbations. Five compositions of considerable length slowly build up the suspense with a touch of sinister, grotesque, and noir-like romanticism, only to disappear in the noisy miasma. – Julia Pátá
GERDA – DIABEŁ (Dyspensa Records)
The wider Polish public probably connects Wojciech Bąkowski with his audio-visual and musical experiments, the latter thanks to the mainstream success of duo Niwea. His new more down-to-earth project GERDA and its release DIABEŁ, where Bąkowski is joined by Jan Piasecki (Uncanny Valley), intensifies his spoken-word asceticism depicting the mundanity of despair. In the background of the “devils”, “yetis”, “monsters”, and “Sindbads” dancing to the sounds of Piasecki's blunt synths and beats, the sardonic collisions between the mythos and banality are revealed. – Julia Pátá
HMOT – The Moon Turned Into The Sun (Kota Tones & Beacon Sound)
East Siberian, Basel-based Stas Shärifulla’s latest offering as HMOT is a stark, intense listening experience. Blistering melodic lines trace new paths forward in an apocalyptic environment, their heat obliterating all the noise in their path. The Bashqort (Turkic ethnic minority) influences are evident here, but they seem to be taken apart and resynthesised into a compelling, inspiring new form. “Ay Qoyaşqa Äylände (Lä)” is the best example, as its winding melodies intertwine with industrial noise to completely absorbing and world-building effect. Utterly unique. – Adam Badí Donoval
Jana Kirschner – Obyčajnosti (Slnko Records)
The name of Jana Kirschner’s new album means “ordinary things” or (more poetically) “ordinarities”. In fact, it’s not an ordinary album, but an antidote. Due to the issues on the Slovak political scene during the last year, the country has fallen into a deep identity crisis. And Kirschner’s calm, folkish and (most of the time) almost ambient attitude with a fragile lyricism in the Slovak language serves as a reminder of what it is to “feel like at home” again. For one hour, at least. – Michael Papcun
Olga Anna Markowska – Thrills (Kanu Kanu)
Thrills is the debut solo EP by multi-disciplinary artist Olga Anna Markowska, whose work slots nicely alongside a fascinating new generation of female Polish electro-acoustic artists like Martyna Basta and Antonina Nowacka, or the neoclassical composer Hania Rani. Markowska is a trained cellist and also uses zither and electronic processing to create glistening compositions which feel like they bridge these two worlds; the home-spun magic of serendipity and chance is present, but so is the more accessible sound. One to keep an eye on. – Adam Badí Donoval
Rivers Like Veins – Architektura Przemijania (Werewolf Promotion)
So-called “extreme music” is not only about heaviness or brutality of its expression. The genius often lies in the depth and intensity of the emotion that is delivered. Architektura Przemijania, the third full-lengh album of Polish black metal project Rivers Like Veins is a great example. Their style is not true to size of old school European black metal, but tends to more avant-garde, black-gazing and incorporating post-black elements. Sonic melancholia is very strong with this one. – Michael Papcun
Simina Oprescu – Sound of Matter (Hallow Ground)
Romanian composer Simina Oprescu joins the Hallow Ground label with a fascinating release inspired by her extensive research of 15 historical church bells. Through a mathematical formula, Oprescu was able to create Max/MSP patches with the bells’ distinct tonalities, thus being able to simulate their individual characteristics digitally. What was initially a multi-channel installation is now a slowly unfolding, mind-bending mono recording. The way the various timbres and frequencies interact messes with your ears – barely-there rhythms turn into throbbing beats, tones you thought were there suddenly disappear, only to return at unexpected moments. Perfect blend of academia and aesthetic feeling: this is both wonderful and very engaging. – Adam Badí Donoval
Staś Czekalski – Przygody (Mondoj)
The setting of Staś Czekalski's flowing ambient debut Przygody resembles an RPG game with Warsaw's map as the playground. Inspired by the Polish composer's wanderings around the capital, the album released on the Polish key experimental label Mondoj is imbued with a childlike skill to perceive the most obscured. Czekalski traces the sunbeams inching through hidden urban nooks with the gentle strokes of MIDI guitars, sparse tones of cheap synths, cordial marimbas, or woozy vocals. Airy, sweet, and yet not naive, the ten short compositions are like thawing ice cream on a late summer day. - Julia Pátá
Szymon Wildstein – TSSSS (enjoy life)
This is one of those lowkey RYM finds that just hits the spot perfectly. These jazz-tinged sound collages from Polish artist Szymon Wildstein (who seems to have been in and around the Polish experimental scene for close to a decade) are imbued with a strange musicality and atmosphere. Their edges are jagged, the general compositional approach slightly chaotic, but it just works. Whether it’s Wildstein’s explorations of 70s style synth music, almost-chamber-music minimalism, or pure sound collage techniques, TSSSS is filled to the brim with fascinating little motifs and moments of brilliance. – Adam Badí Donoval
URN – Self Sabotage (Stoned to Death)
The unlimited creative force of… the acoustic guitar. And a few other instruments. But really just a few. The composed work of Slovak guitarist Jakub Volovár is filled with so-called “noir paranoia”, which contains generous amounts of jazz, flamenco, krautrock, psychedelic music and soundtrack music, not far from hallucinatory sequences of Alfred Hitchcock’s 50s movies or the early work of David Lynch. Highly polymorphous craftsmanship. – Michael Papcun
Honourable mentions
aheloy! – deep in the big blue dream (Discos Extendes)
Alëna Korolëva – premonitions (forms of minutiae)
Crosspolar – Archive 18—23 (PURE LIFE)
David Datunashvili – შენ ხომ სხვებს არ ჰგავხარ (s/r)
family show – PEOPLE SAID THE WORLD (Pocahontas)
Hennadii Boichenko – Sea Songs (Muscut)
Hizbut Jámm – Hizbut Jámm (Instant Classic)
Ian Mikyska & Fredrik Rasten – Music For Sixth-tone Harmonium (Warm Winters Ltd.)
Liis Ring – I found what I was looking for (Longform Editions)
LOUFR – FEARS (Pointless Geometry)
Nikolaienko – Life at Cafe OTO (Muscut)
Piper Spray & Lena Tsibizova – Debtor of Presence (Theory Therapy)
Thank you for reading! More coming soon :~)
If you are an artist from Central or Eastern Europe and you have an album coming soon, please feel free to send it our way via email: a.b.donoval@gmail.com
Hola , He Descubierto Éste Fascinante Álbum Hace Unos Días , ¿Lo Habéis Escuchado Antes ?. Un Saludo. https://beneathasteelsky666.bandcamp.com/album/symfonie-hluku