Stratasoul – Hip Hop from Heaven

Published January, 2013
by Easterndaze

Listening to the Slovak producer Stratasoul is like a hot air balloon ride – floating and sinking into a magic aural stratosphere, bumping into a chunk of beats here, catching on a string of clinks and clanks there…so easy and carefree.

“I remember feeling fascinated when I first heared a sampled amen loop on an Atari ST computer,a gift from granddad. Without any musical knowledge or experience I set myself a goal to make music, out of fascination with something indescribable, which grew inside of me and I still could not explain, but I’m getting some hints now.”

Rarely does one come across a beatmaker whose music in not overtly dominated by the beat. It serves more as a backbone, a gentle anchor pulling together the invisible strings of infinite ethereal sounds and melodies that form probably the most pleasant sonic chaos your ears have ever met.

“Usually I’d start with some synth and basic sound design which fits my current mood, and then I’d search for chords with my shitty piano skills. I usually make a sketch instantly, and then edit it in a MIDI sequencer. Here suddenly I find myself in a process which is not of this world anymore and everything comes naturally. It actually takes a short time, but to me it seems like forever until a sketch of a track is made. Then the obsessive disorder takes place and fine-tuning of arrangements, etc.”

Stratasoul’s compositions feel like a dreamy stream of consciousness – a risky modus operandi, for it is only too easy to lose the listener on a trip where the next step is a surprise even to the guide.  Here, however, you press play, and before you realize, you find yourself lost in the subtle, yet firm hold of this hypnotizing sound.

What’s the trick? I believe it has to be love, and the sheer joy of creating and perceiving music without burdening this two-way process with a heavy message or complex meaning. This simple, unconscious way of expression has detail and depth that gets richer with each listen.

“When I write my music I feel overwhelmed by something. It’s as if I feel connected to some stream of calmness. I try to give an expression to what I feel at that moment, and that is why I value the very presence. It may sound megalomaniac, but I feel it in an intimate way. My music is an expression of my attitudes, sometimes naive, unsafe, you know luvly isles, honestly just sharing with people.”

Like so many other electronic musicians these days, Stratasoul is mostly drawing the vocal part of his works from 90’s soul and r’n’b classics. Funnily enough, it is the interpretation of this already clichéd source that happens to be the most characteristic and unique trait of his sound. Instead of looping whole words, phrases or riffs, he deconstructs voices into fragments and sifts them through multiple effects. The result is a heavenly love message pronounced in an unknown muffled language, chipped and clumsy and shy, but full of warmth and sincerity.

“I think we are the kids of the onset of information and globalization age, so we are getting connected more and more through other aspects than our geographical or traditional cultural affinity.”

Indeed, Stratasoul’s music does not seem rooted in any realia – be it cultural, ethnic or social. In fact, it does not have anything to do with Earth at all. It is the sound of angels making hip hop on an imaginary island floating in the sky – hip hop from heaven. 

<a href=“http://ajlavmjuzik.bandcamp.com/album/stratasoul-luvly-isles” data-mce-href=“http://ajlavmjuzik.bandcamp.com/album/stratasoul-luvly-isles”>Stratasoul – Luvly Isles by ajlavmjuzik</a>

by Snezhana Bezus, find her at her blog Beatbucket.