CD

Just in time for Valeot Records 5th anniversary, co-founder and label head alexandr vatagin presents his third solo album “serza”. in combining the analogue and tender atmosphere of “valeot” (2006) with the harsh, yet subtle digital electronics of “shards” (2008), “serza” is attesting to a consequent and traceable development towards maturity in sound and structure. featuring a huge spectrum of common as well as unusual instruments, it takes you on a thirty minute trip full of delicate melodies, pushing drums, gentle noise, swirling celli, warm vibraphone chimes and sweet piano tunes. The album features friends from all over the world including martin siewert (radian, trapist), hideki umezawa (pawn), james yates (epic 45, pattern theory), fabian pollack, giulio aldinucci, all tupolev members and patrick pulsinger, who provided several self-recorded synth samples. Serza is presented live either by alexandr vatagin (cello, synth, laptop) solo or as a trio: alexandr vatagin (bass, nordlead, laptop), martin siewert (guitar, devices) and david schweighart (drums). Born in ukraine in the early 80ies, vatagin moved to austria in the beginning of the 90ies, and only started to make music another decade later. he plays in tupolev and port-royal and founded the project quarz, which recently released its first album on cronica. he has collaborated with b. fleischmann, stefan nemeth (lokai), steven hess (pan american), philippe petit (strings of consciousness), bernhard breuer (elektro guzzi, metalycee), alexander schubert, kutin (dirac), nicolas bernier and many others and played concerts all over western, central and eastern europe. his solo works and works he was involved in were released on valeot records, morr music, cronica, n5md, mikroton, moozak and many more.

Digipak CD… ‘Ivory’ is the third solo-record by Vienna-based ‘soundworker’ Peter Kutin. The guitar is the instrument that creates / triggers most of the sound we can hear on this record, real-time transformed by Peter’s laptop. Only for three tracks other instruments were used additionally: a viola, a korg synth and a double bass, the latter being played by Matija Schellander on the sparkling ‘after the plague’ (#4). ‘Ivory’ developed while Kutin was writing music for old silent movies for the Austrian film-archive. Somehow one can still hear the filmscore, the cinematographic idea within the music. The album offers sounds that will thrill our ears, allows journeys through different sonic spaces, creates pictures inside the listeners head; ‘world without end’ might be the only track that almost reaches the format of a ‘pop-track’, while most of the other tracks want and need you to listen closer. The minimal final anthem ‘lonesome monster’ seems to move only in its spectrum, not in metrum. The partial-tunes sing the song. A piece of music that stretches time, positioning itself somewhere besides Stars of the Lid’s orchestral style.