Friday, November 25, 2022

amek066 Petkov/Borzeszkowski "Lachrymorph" CS

Order at Bandcamp

To create their first collaborative full-length “Lachrymorph”, guitarist Petar Petkov and drummer Bartosz Borzeszkowski embarked on a journey to the Unknown – both physically and creatively. Having successfully collaborated in the studio (check out “Scape I", released in "Vanishing Standards II"), the artists felt the need to dig deeper into their mutual audial explorations, which curiously enough stem from their quite different musical backgrounds with Petkov coming from the world of classical guitar and Borzeszkowski - from the field of jazz. 

 In “Lachrymorph”, Petkov and Borzeszkowski don’t hold preliminary discussions to lead the music the desired way, they do not map their explorations but rely on intuition. Creating in a small cottage in the deep forests of Cassubia, Poland, they seem to have not only opened their own worlds to one another's contributions, but have left the door wide open for all that lurked around to further nuance and deepen their sound. Scattered across the pieces are field recordings, captured during the duo’s walks in the surrounding areas, that further flesh out the world surrounding Petkov and Borzeszkowski's creative process. 





“Lachrymorph” is a varied listen, more of a collection of musical snapshots than a narrative-driven experience. Some tracks (“I”, “IV”, “VII”) are deep and captivating soundscape works that make you lose a sense of the actual instruments that went into their creation. Others(“V” and “VI”) are more straightforward and act as a sort of wake-up call, not letting you disintegrate entirely in the hazy musical territories of the record. Most of the music, however, inhabits the intriguing zone between these two polarities, neither direct nor surreal, like glimpses from one world to another.




Music by Petar Petkov and Bartosz Borzeszkowski
Recorded and mixed by Bartosz Borzeszkowski
Mastered by Michał Jan Ciesielski
Design and artwork by Kamil Frąckiewicz (@szklanymózg)
Photos by Petar Petkov




Monday, November 14, 2022

Dayin, Musical Statues, krallar live at Fabrika Avtonomia (gallery)

 


Dayin




Musical Statues






krāllār







Photos above by Silvana Ilieva.

Dayin



Musical Statues


krāllār



Photos above by Zlatina Tochkova.

Fabrika Avtonomia, Sofia
08/11/2022



Friday, October 28, 2022

amek067 Vague Voices "II. Елегии" (CS)

 

Order at Bandcamp.

Three years have passed since Vague Voices, a collaborative project between Stefan Bachvarov (Cyberian) and Angel Simitchiev, debuted with their full-length “Гробник”. The duo has mostly kept a low profile since then, except for contributing music to the compilation projects “Vanishing Standards” (2019) and “An Embrace” (2021, co-released with Vaagner).

The work on “II. Елегии” commenced in early 2022. This new album sees the music of Vague Voices gradually drifting away from a strictly electronic sound to more guitar-centered, noisy, aggressive, and introverted territories. The full-length is a mesmerizing narrative-driven musical experience whose tense atmosphere shines especially dark when performed live and loud. While the direct video game inspirations from the duo’s debut are now mostly gone, the otherworldly atmosphere of unknown and non-existent cyber realities is still here. As evident on the closing tracks, especially "Светът трепери" featuring lyrics and vocals by Feedbacker's very own Ivan Shentov, the musical worlds of Vague Voices have become even more brooding, and at times, dare we say, extreme.

In Bulgarian "елегии" stands for pieces of literature or music, inspired by or dedicated to tragic events, and while what Vague Voices are painting with their music might seem grim and bleak, Amek is nothing but excited to welcome the return of one of our dearest and most signature musical projects.




Produced by Stefan Bachvarov & Angel Simitchiev
Vocals & lyrics on "Светът трепери" by Ivan Shentov
Mastered by Marius Costache (Studio 148)
Vague Voices logo by Georgi Ivanov