DAS
by COMMAND-K
Kalina Solarek hails from Zurich, Switzerland, and attenuation circuit is very happy to present her debut mini-album. The stark psychedelic constructivism of the cover art sparks associations with techno aesthetics. This is no coincidence, as some of Command-K's tracks exhibit strong flavours of ambient techno. Yet the emphasis always remains on the 'ambient' aspect. The warmth and depth of Command-K's rich sonic textures is especially enhanced by the imaginative combinations of electronic instruments with her electric guitar.
The titles of the six tracks, from the ambiguous acronyms of the album and some track titles through genre-typical 'space' images like „View From Above“ or „Collision with Aliens“ to a 'hyperrealistic' title like „Football Fans in Altstetten“, the tracks outline the different imaginary journeys that the music allows to the listener. Always lush, yet not necessarily without a certain subdued unease hiding in the back of the soundscape and adding suspense, these six compositions offer discoveries of unexpected details and loopholes with each repeated listen.
File under: ambient, electronica
ACU 1073
factory-produced CDr in Digifile
Released in 2024
limited to 100 copies
price: 8.00 EUR (excl. postage)
all tracks written and produced by Kalina Solarek
command-k.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561046000185
www.instagram.com/command_k_music
Also available here: http://www.discogs.com/seller/dependenz?sort=price&sort_order=asc&q=attenuation+circuit&st
BAD ALCHEMY
Mit konkreter Op-Art hebt sich DAS (ACU 1073, CDr) hervor, das Debut von Kalina Solarek alias COMMAND-K aus Zürich. Die gegen die optisch geweckten Erwartungen jedoch mit zittrigen, ostinat repetierten Gitarrenriffs überrascht. Gefolgt von monoton knarrenden 1-2, links-rechts Kicks, die dem spotten, was den Fußballfans im Stadion Letzigrund in Altstetten von den Grashoppers und Konsorten geboten wird. Aber Solarek reiht ihre Sounds und Beats durchwegs mit lakonisch trockenem Humor ins staubige Ambiente, mit kleinen Hüpfern und in tuckernden Wellen. Schon früh um '6:35' ist sie auf Betriebstemperatur, mit ruhigem Puls auch bei dröhnendem Drang. Richtig munter macht sie allenfalls die Erwartung einer 'Collision with Aliens', denn deren tiefen Bassfrequenzen schickt sie launige Beats als „Willkommen“ entgegen.
www.badalchemy.de
VITAL WEEKLY
Another release from our friends at Attenuation Circuit is this mini-album by Zürich based Polish-born Kalina Solarek. In 18 minutes divided over six tracks, she experiments with rhythms, electronics and her electric guitar. She studied jazz / electric guitar but currently works as an architect and we all know she’s not the first architect who does experimental music. I mean, maybe there is something with spatial aspects and the urge to construct that gets triggered. Maybe a sidetone far, far away, but has there ever been research on which professions experimental musicians have who can’t live off their music? That would be interesting, I think (just throwing it into the world).
But, back to Kalina. As said, her primary instrument is an electric guitar, and that’s audible on ‘DAS’. The opening track, ‘View From Above’, consists of a looped guitar melody where distortion is added to create all kinds of harmonic structures. The second track, ‘Football Fans in Altstetten’, is built on a rhythmic structure/fundament where ambient layers based on sustained guitar sounds create a pleasant experience. The third track, “OTR”, is an experiment with rhythm and noise, and right after that ‘OTN’ is a combination of rhythm and melody/bass line with supported noisy sounds that again seem to originate from a feedbacking guitar. It reminded me of a few things I have heard from the (K-RAA-K)³ label. There, too, you would get stuff you never expected.
The most paradoxical track of this release is ‘6:35’, which is 3:38 in length. The time signature here reminds me a bit of old-school electronic body music. Yet again, where old-school EBM was mainly electronic, here, too, the main instrument is the electric guitar—done tastefully and, in the end, noisy as f***. ‘Collision with Aliens’ closes this release with an excellent rhythmic structure and, from what I could recognize, the only whole electronic track on here. Maybe a few sounds here and there are guitar-based… But the track never becomes as heavily guitar-driven as the previous tracks. Welcome to the world of experimental music, Kalina!
https://www.vitalweekly.net/number-1453/
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