The Polish producer Lukasz Szalankiewicz is active on the experimental music scene almost a decade, mostly under his nickname Zenial. His music career started when the young Szalankiewicz joined the demoscene, a community of programmers and artists that created small audiovisual softwares called demos.

He has a new LP out right now, Connection Reset by Peer, which was released by the polish label Zoharum. It contains compositions created by the electromagnetic interference technique. For the end of the year, Zenial has another release in store, this time a vinyl which will contain not only compositions inspired by Czech hermetic magician Franz Bardon but also special digital tracks of old school PC software created by Zenial and his collaborators. 

His aural experiments ooze an otherwordly atmospherics, as if ghosts yearned to escape from his lingering audio abyss. Clicks, beeps, field recordings, disembodied “voices” all compose Zenial’s sonic world.

Listen to our interview with him (aired on 30 May 2012 on Czech Radio Wave)

The London-based project Jamka has been exploring the outer reaches of analogue electronics for a decade now, as part of the Urbsounds Collective. Their hardware medley especially comes to life during their unforgettable live experiences. A reckless sonic abandon leads the listener into higher states of sonic consciousness, with no mercy.

This podcast is an assortment of their sounds spanning over a period of the last ten years. When listening to them you will not find any chronological order in the way they follow. Instead the individual tracks were arranged so that they relate to each other sonically and in their attitude. The podcast delivers 12 tracks overall and includes a bonus in the form of a lost and recently found song Jopra recorded in Bratislava in 2002. This track is now available as a free digital download.

For more information about Jamka and their latest album Pari Passu please visit their website:

To download Jopra, click here if you want it in mp3 and here if you’d like it in wav format.

Following his mesmerizing debut last year, the now Bratislava-based Jacques Kustod returns with a synth-driven triple journey into various sonic cosmic territories. We asked Jacques to shed some light on the inspiration and process of creation of his latest EP Trois Visages, which you can download for free.

Earth Gravity Trick

I produced this tune in the beginning of this year, after I returned from a concert in Prague, where some nasty things happened, which were caused by myself also. I was devastated by this sudden turn of events and I didn’t leave my house for three days. I was listening to loads of synth-based and krautrock stuff. I wanted to combine those two elements into one working piece and this is the result. The field recordings in the end are taken from my balcony in Brno and you can hear my cat Jonas meowing and asking for food. This is a peaceful place which I’ve really enjoyed and recorded loads of field recordings there, because of its unique position in the vibrant ghetto Cejl in Brno and it is supposed to represent the final peace and escape.

T-740

T-740 represents the number of days since the beginning of my most intense and complicated relationship. The entire track is a sort of guide through this period of my life with some darker intermission before the end. Aside from that soul lead sample, the vocals were recorded by myself and there is also a hidden joke with autotune on reverbed vocals in the middle part of the track. This track is dedicated to that person,  she doesn’t know, though we are friends now.

The Stone Tape

As I also have another project called Zeleny Antoin with a background story of a relationship between Jacques and Antoin, this serves as some possible clue of kinship among those two characters, as they hate each other. Zeleny Antoin is my platform for darker, sonic experiments verging on noise, lo-fi, hardcore techno and metal aesthetics. My new Bratislavan flatmate Adam played trumpet. We used a very poor mic, which lent it an even better atmosphere. I just love lo-fi tactics )

One and a half years after VA - Easterndaze Vol 1, we are back with another selection of our favourite sounds from this region. It doesn’t aim to be an all-encompassing, comprehensive survey of the current state of sonic production in these parts of the world, but an offering of the stuff we think deserves recognition and stands out for various, individual reasons.

It’s hard to define the sound of the new compilation, but there’s a predominance of a certain melancholy, channeled through plaintive synthscapes, unhindered psychedelic voyages to the nethersphere, schizophrenic voice-vocal experiments, mutant bass… From Katapulto’s “Stories From Beyond the Sun: Threesome”, a track that quotes the gargantuan UK tabloid The Sun, through our friend Gosia and her solo project LeeDVD, a brilliantly inane rendition of Madonna’s hit, to the Slovenian theatre/artist Irena Tomažin and her powerful and somehow deranged and scary voice-based composition.

Our favourite mysterious monkey from Congo via Gdansk also figures, with his slightly weird and haunting track “Boonsong”, while Route 8 follows in a more uplifting synthy direction, and Anca Stirbacu, aka Hipdiebattery, delivers the album’s perhaps most approachable number, the catchy “In The Air Tonite”. A breakdown. Wild psychedelic experimentation, courtesy of tape manipulations and analogue meddley, comes from the brand new project Střed Světa. b0g, the king of mashup, delivers his bass-driven number, while Zmikeo! comes in live from Belgrade with his “Toys”.

Reckless abandon, lingering in the void, spastic beats. poo and Nava Spatiala create a fitting conclusion, followed by a soothing anti-climax courtesy of Casi Cada Minuto and his “Chievo”.

The cover, same as last year, is a painting specifically created for this purpose. After Jarmila Mitríková’s great psychedelic landscape, this time it’s the Czech artist Jan Gemrot and his cold, Terminator inspired scene.

The compilation is free to download, and comes out on the great Audiotong label. Get it here.

If you are in Budapest on 11 May, pop in and say hi & toast this comp at the Roham Bar featuring several artists from the record, including Hipdiebattery, Route8, or ∑B❍L▲ ▲P∑. Here is the FB link.

Slovak and Czech bass electronica producers have teamed up to give a sonic tribute to the prolific Slovak singer and musician Vašo Patejdl, know for his dominance of 80’s synthpop music and collaboration in a plethora of different projects on the Slovak scene.

Patejdl was in a way a key figure, however his former fame has slowly turned into a ambivalent fascination with his past. 

The Slovak producer Stratasoul as well as his mates EGA, Stroon and Ink Midget and the Czech beatmaker Side9000 have spontaneously created remixes of Patejdls music in a gesture that is at once ironic but also pays homage to Patejdl. Check out their massive refits below: