ZAVOLOKA & AGF – nature never produces the same beat twice

(CD, nexsound)

I have some prejudices against structural techno, i.e. music that was constructed after a certain principle or idea and with very confinded compositorial rules. That starts with Handel’s watermusic and goes way beyond Bela Bartok, John Cage and micro glitches; and also works of of Jon Mueller, Kaffe Matthews and Jason Kahn or Hanna Hartman, to name only a few examples were it worked mostly that were mentioned within these pages. A lot of time the conceptualism really is a big barrier for the music, and since I am mainly looking for heartbeats and energy in music, no matter what the genre is, this is the main conflict zone were my prejudices come from.

For this collaboration of ukrainian noise experimentalist and vocalist Kateryna Zavoloka with the Berlin based techno producer Antje Greie aka AGF, the idea was to create fifty one-minute pieces of technoid beats with vocals existing of the name of a plant or a tree. Labelled as “techno like trees”. Split in five categories: trees, meadows, spices, bushes and flowers – though I am not sure the biological nomenclatura is followed strictly, which seems to be not important anyway, after all, they didn’t take the sixty second measurement to strictly as well - of three to eighteen parts I wasn’t able to find a musical classification that was directly portable to the labelled class. The strict minute structure makes the album even harder to listen to as a whole, but since I never went away from a musical challenge to my listening abilities, I took this record on as an almost sportive event.

Some parts you wish they would haven taken much more time to linger on the idea and explore it in depth, like “Korin” or the danceable “Brusnitsia “. Other parts are pure micro glitches with beastly beats and subsonic noise mixed in, the vocals distorted and cut into tiny pieces. Some are also very noise and chaotic, cut up and offering weird dynamics, like “Zeder vodorosti”. The short measure of these tracks is an advantage as well as a disadvantage, because on the one side there is a very wide range of music, sounds and arrangements on the record, but on the other hand, some techno- or electronica styles really need time to enfold their true power and beauty in repitition. Should I use the repeat button on my CD-player to reach that effect?

The ongoing contrast and fusion of vocals and beats are the main attractor of this album. How much more variations would they have come up with given enough time, money and ressources? Sometimes the beats and clicks and glitches seem to devour the vocals, at other times they are clearly spoken and discernibly at the front. Noise exchanges for almost dub-like bass-parts, chaos for rhythm, dynamics for entropy, 4/4-beat with random noises. Some of these tracks will easily make the most stress resistent breakbeat fan cringe with nervousness. The constant artistic shimmy between otherness and repetition within a self-chosen network of rules – I mentioned that at the beginning – and it turns out really well.

After all, the concept of nature of these two artists doesn’t really accord to my picture of nature. I like to think of it as a relaxed, peaceful place, without hectic or stress, living the circle of life – summer to winter, birth to death – in fearless and everlasting loops. Of course, nature is also a dangerous place, and its rules apply strictly. In that way I have to harshly disagree with the title of this record, nature does produce the same beat over and over again, from birdsong to the shape of seed. Nature is the measure of rules and laws within a universe of chaos, it is the eternal fight for reducing entropy. So I have to thank Zavoloka and AGF for two things: to remind me of the fact that my picture of nature is a very egocentric, idealized, nostalgic image fabricated to contrast my daily life to give the moments I enjoy that image a bigger relaxation power. Yes, I have manufactured my picture of what nature is according to my needs and thereby made nature my tool, by confining it to woods, meadows and gardens to sit in and relax. The other thing I have to be thankful for is this, after all and taken as it is with all the limitations it might have according to personal taste or views, really great and enriching record.