Jacques Kustod – First Year EP (Chernobyl Musick, 2011)

Published August, 2011
by Easterndaze

Brno’s electronic underground has plunged into a sort of hiatus after “years of glory” when the artists/promoter’s collective/netlabel Chernobyl Musick organised the legendary Heavy Mental parties, and the Fleda Club was one of the leading venues for cutting edge music in the Czech Republic.

The recent personal changes in Fleda, as well as several key players entering “real life” or moving away from Brno made it look like the ‘scene’ has been terminated. However under the surface the things are still happening: Chernobyl Musick crew is still active, and a new generation of musicians and collectives like ABBA or electronica nights such as Usi & Vitr – is expanding their operations.

A recent newcomer to the scene is Jacques Kustod, a musical alter-ego of the 24-years old Andrej Kabal. His debut First Year EP out on Chernobyl Musick is a concept-album turned personal. Jacques Kustod embarks on an escapist sonic journey – leaving earthly matters behind, he dissolves into a complex cosmos of frequencies that slowly build up into rhythmical composition owing much to the EBM, minimal techno and early industrial sound.

Jacques Kustod – Jacques Tames Comet by easterndaze

However, most notable are the two Diary Loop interludes. Here the First Year EP reaches its most personal level – in the first Loop Jacques Kustod encounters love, and guides us through the nostalgic memories full of recordings of Debussy hidden under an aural fog of reverbs, lush soundscapes and voices that evoke an intimate but perplexing atmosphere that ends abruptly. In the second Loop, we are put straight into a hauntological field-recording of an Antifascist blockade in Brno, through which CIA’s voice recognition algorithms are cutting their way identifying left-wing extremists.

Jacques Kustod – Diary Loop #2 by easterndaze

Listen to the whole EP: http://jacqueskustod.bandcamp.com/