Kotra, Zavoloka and Dunaewsky69
Kallista
Kvitnu

'Raw pulsations crossed with deep ambience, uncut noise smashed by clear sine waves, modular complexity put through broken cables. One hour of constant changes and unpredictable turns in composition. 24 tracks of pure analogue machine madness and bizarre sound ideas.' (Kvitnu)

Each new release from the Ukrainian Kvitnu label is an exciting moment. As always the packaging is pure bliss, delicate art and design (by Zavoloka), and cover-wrapping. This time it's a triple-collaboration between Dunaewsky69, Kotra, and Zavoloka. The Kallista recording is a tribute to Kraków, Poland. The threesome on the city: '...[it's an] obscure area of inspiration and misunderstandings, old city of new art and technology, place of imminent comfort and lazy silence, convenient space for breeding bizarre and radical ideas. Kraków is unpredictable and constant, always late and always ahead of time, extremely boring and super innovative, like it's just don't care. We were looking for lost and hidden currents of Kraków, or creating new ones for the city that always sleeps and always awake.'.

Kallista is a collection of instrumental short-stories, or fairytales, some quite scarier, or eerier than others. Most of them bubbling with synthetics and electronics, presenting sound-landscapes of the minimalist, abstract kind. Kotra, Zavoloka and Dunaewsky69 perform 10, 5 and 9 tracks each, respectively. The three of them went to Kraków in early 2012 with a goal to create music about the city. Sort of a soundtrack to the city. Assisted by the Studio of Electro acoustic music of Kraków Music Academy, the Kvitnu artists got to work with an unique collection of old analogue synthesizers, modular systems and sound processors, held in the studio's collection since the early 1960s. Probably every electro-acoustic artists wet dream.

The Kallista concept was Kotra's baby. All music was composed, created, generated and recorded by Zavoloka, Kotra and Dunaewsky69. Each of them composed approx 20 minutes of music, which later was mixed into this collaboration album. A few contributors were invited, such as young Slovakian artist Jonáš Gruska (who participated in sound generating and the recording of the album), and two Polish composers, Michał PaweŁek (additional field recordings) and Marcin Strzelecki (custom made oscillator). In addition a saxophone sample on "Solvay" was done by Ayane Yamanaka.

So, 24 tracks in 1 hour 3 minutes is quite a challenge. I'm not sure if my mind's ready for a portion (or potion) like this. Yet, it's quite fascinating stuff. The art of darkness.

Copyright © 2013 Håvard Oppøyen