DUNAEWSKY69 – xquisite.xcerpt

(CD, Kvitnu)

A clash of expectations. Dunaewsky69 aka Olexandr Gladun from Kyiv, Ukraine, will hit your ears and mind in various ways at the same time. You’ll probably be appalled by his directness and harshness, by the noise and the sheer volume of sound these tracks demand. But you’ll also be fascinated by the subtle and minor details, the gentle melodies and the intricate fragments that are also apparent in these tracks. The dozen tracks on this collection vary in the mix of these two opposing, multifaceted ingredients, but they are always there. While one track might take you back a couple of years and remind you of the cold and harsh beats the first round of electronic / industrial musicians like Coil and Cabaret Voltaire used to dish out, the next track might get you into a digital mode surfing the global network for direct to the brain electronical stimulation. The next moment you’ll find that you have decieved yourself and that none of these connotations are true and that the track has evolved to something completely different. The next time you listen to the album different tracks might trigger memories that other tracks had triggered before. It is like a living thing.

Every track is based on a more or less complex percussive rhythm from somewhere deep inside a synthie-machine. This is the stomp of the engine that you need to travel to the land of beauty and clarity. Atmospheric layers linger in the back, are being mixed to the foreground at times and then take over the drone finally when the beats fade. Or vice versa. “Does somebody live inside me?” starts with almost new ageish keyboard layers only to stop and introduce a distorted 4/4 beat with a slow, akward bass line that is only accompanied by more beats and some noise samples. If somebody would rap over that I’d call it Ukrainian grime, instead the noise samples start to sound as if somebody’s voice had been manipulated. And the keyboard layers flowing in some time later sound like gregorian chorals echoing through the centuries.

Gladun has a history of jazz, brass orchestra, death metal, electronic experiments and once trained to become a fighter pilot in a special air forces of the Ukrainian army. The thing I like most about travelling with jet planes (100 % civillian, though) are the sounds the engines make and the impression they have on the body and mind. There are two things: at first the starting and landing which is loud, massive and the velocity puts a lot of pressure on your body. The other thing is the constant, actually rather loud noise of the engines during flight. A ten hour flight is like a trance meditation in a wall of noise. The mind starts to block the constant rush of noise to a small humming but if you open your ears you realize you are in a small capsule that leaves you barely enough space to move around a little and that is terribly loud. A mind opening experience indeed. “xquisite.xcerpts” are neither mind altering drones nor massive punches to the head, but rhythmical excursions into the dark sides of your brain. Or maybe Gladun just sets the pace and your mind starts to wander all by yourself?