The high priestess of sonic melancholia Lee DVD and Mito Day have delivered their “romantic space songs” on a new record fittingly entitled Saturn Melancholia. Last year, the duo appeared on the Krakow-based label Audiotong with an EP Other Sides. Thus, comparisons are on on hand. The new album reflects their burgeoning live shows. More buoyant (beats) and in a way also pop-inflected but still imbued with their trademark melancholia haze - as if they run the tracks through some Saturn effects processor. Whereas Other Sides was the experimental introvert, Saturn Melancholia is an extroverted introvert.

Saturn Melancholia is out now in Fuka Lata’s label Kondico.

Saturn Melancholia by Fuka Lata

Our interview with the band about the record for the Radio Wave show.

The great Polish label Sangoplasmo is one the most interesting imprints to emerge from this region over the past few years, having released the likes of Aranos but also several oddly beautiful albums by the likes of Lutto Lento or Katapulto. It’s 2012 release schedule starts off with a bang - with no less than 4 tapes.

Aside from Burial Hex and Felicia Atkinson who has yearning, hypnotic and folorn songs recorded in Amish Country, there is also a lovely little number by the Ukrainian based sound artists Edward Sol. His telling “How Can I Sleep With These Voices In My Head” is an unudulterated, unprocessed field recording of thousands of frogs which he recorded in 2011 in Lychanka, Ukraine where he lives. A psychedelic organic journey into uncanny sounds of nature unfolds.

You can listen to the soundbites here.

Poland has been no novice to witch-influenced tunes (courtesy of Cowshed Records), but lately there have been projects appearing on the scene that even though utilising some of the aesthetics of the once popular microgenre, create their own sonic language. 

Lasariage is a project of Jakub Wojciechowski who was also featured on Cowshed’s compilation Side Effects last year. His influences range from Boards of Canada via Beastie Boys to Salem. His latest album R■n■sans is out now and it follows in a characteristically languid vein but also offers some light at the end of the day (with customary John F. Kennedy samples on the way).

You can download and listen to the album here.

Compilations have increasingly become a medium of choice for many labels these days, a quick and easy way how to put up loads of tracks by loads of producers without a need to release separate EPs (we’ve been part of the game too we admit with a new comp coming out in next couple of weeks:). But eventually the more good music gets exposed, the better. 

The fledgling Polish netlabel Cowshed Records has a new comp out (check out the previous one here). Originally focused on the much-maligned microgenre witch house, Cowshed rec. is spreading its musical scope into other related macabre aural territories (be it Kate Bush-esque vocals, to dubtech, to dreamy excurcions to techno), and their latest compilation, aptly entitled Dark Side of Pop is only a sonic manifestation of this. It features a diverse array of Polish producers, from the established like Pleq (who delivers a surprisingly witchy number), to newcomers like Ebola Ape who has a nice collaboration with Fuka Lata’s Lee DVD to the Luxembourg import Sun Glitters.

The mysterious Sopot based producer caught our attention a few month ago (read the article here), and since then he has kept in touch with the wide world via a steady stream of videos and tracks. His latest endeavour is a remix of Husband’s Lovesong accompanied by an old anime video. Below is another of his visual messages about a medical experience.

“This shocking documentary will give you some idea about the strange medical experiments which has taken place at the secret laboratory where Ebo has been kept. The same night when this video has been shoot, Ebo escaped. This video material is NOT A FAKE. The tape has been stolen from the secret archives of the Institute of Tropical Medicine.”