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Spevy

Chaotic (poly)rhythms generated by natural elements such as wind and water, extended and combined with micro-improvisations. Field recordings of trains, crickets, grasshoppers are joined by a generative synthesis, inspired by the traditional music of Laos. Sounds of Jonáš’s childhood, sounds of immediate surroundings, ultrasounds pitch-shifted to our hearing dimension.

The main theme of the album is erratical behaviour of the environment and fauna in collaboration with attempts to find a pattern and order; exploration of ASMR phenomenon through unconventional microphone techniques and deep focus on meridian-response-inducing timbres. Each used sound has a strong emotional connection with Jonáš’s past and has its own story in the overall experience.

Tracklist

1. Spev Cvrčka (1:52)

The main part was recorded with Merak Jagad, gamelan orchestra at Indonesian Embassy in Bratislava. The proposition was to create a collaborative composition with individual timing decisions, solely dependant on the performers. It is accompanied by rhythmic songs of a cricket living in a pile of manure near Trenčianska Závada and a grasshopper I met on a evening stroll in small town Omišalj.

2. Tečúci vietor (4:32)

It is dedicated to exploration of system excitations, wind and water in their tight collaboration exciting objects of their liking, and I try to play along. Dedicated to all the beauty hidden in the chaotic behaviour of fundamental constituents of the world and their liquid rhythm.

Apéritif glasses as remains after old lady living in my rented apartment are filled with few millilitres of water to create slightly muffled clink with a wobbly tail (generated by the movement of the water in the glass itself). Custom stereo hydrophone inserted in the sink. Stirring of a salted water in a cup. Rumblings of a pontoon bridge at Dunaj river. Cans hanged on a metallic rods, clanking in the wind to scare off the moles – sound of my childhood vacations in Czech Republic.

3. Spevy (9:38)

Calling for and from the other worlds. Aim to create a space where I feel comfortable. Longing for a home planet, for understanding. Complex envelopes are accompanied by khene, my favorite mouth organ to be found in East Asia.

4. Brušky (3:20)

Guineapigs living in a kindergarden crunching bell peppers. Zorro the Dog is unhappy about his hair being combed. And his stomach was rumbling in a pleasing way one night… in stereo.

5. Pontón (1:37)

Free improvisation of the water induced, chaotic rhythm of my favourite pontoon, systematically precise clock and myself playing on a piezoelectric film and a coffee machine. Feel free to imagine us as a trio performing at stage.

6. Volanie (5:05)

Alien life-forms gather to sing with a recording of insects and birds at “Záruby”, Slovakia.

7. Vodné entinty (2:52)

Cast iron pot from my grandmother was filled with water and dry beans and recorded with a hydrophone. Microphones were inserted in half-full soda cans to explore their cavities. Love for the water pitch-shifting quality emerges.

8. Vtlak (3:48)

Close-up recording of a train from child's perspective. My mother used to take me as a child to watch (and listen!) trains on Bratislava's train station and now I get to record them. Living close to the station itself, I can occasionally hear the announcements of the trains and heavy cargo wagons echoing through the night.

9. Netopiere (7:07)

Examination of ultrasonic frequencies emitted by insects and bats in Bratislava. Since they are impossible to hear directly, I record them using bat-detectors. Second part of the song is about how I imagine ultrasonic sounds might be perceived when one is capable of hearing those frequencies.

Released on LOM in 2017

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