Mirt’s Modern Electronics

Published August, 2014
by Easterndaze

There is a science surrounding modular synthesizers, attracting modern alchemysts of sound, eager to tweak something worthwhile out of the cold steel, dreaming of wires.

The Warsaw-based producer Mirt has been making music in various formations for 15 years. He is a musician, graphic designer and also a publisher and journalist aside from running his label cat|sun and being involved in the Monotype imprint. His musical modus operandi is closely tied to analogue electronics, making use of their relative shortcomings in comparison to the endless possibilities of modern software: “It is limited in comparison to computer and DAW and much more demanding, but eventually it works better for me, it makes something straight – for example, you can’t edit a track to death,” he says. His fascination with modular synthesis lead him to building and design of modular equipment as part of the XAOC Devices.

In comparison to the other Polish modular freak Wilhelm Bras, his output is more sedated, in a good way. Mellow and almost gentle, the beat encompassed by swirling melodics. His Modern Electronics is a three track EP, with succinctly named tracks – the eponymous Modern Electronics and its anti-thesis and rejection of the concept Fuck Modern Electronics? “Maybe it is a little provocative. Maybe it is about electronic music eating its tail. How underground/experimental/alternative music is melting in pop and mainstream.”

The gem is hidden in between – Modern Electronics II. Starting off with a sample, a field recording, it veils the listening experience into hazy oriental atmospherics, a gradual build up with subdued percussion in the background, menacing in a very subtle way – in some ways it reminds me of Marina Rosenfeld’s Warrior Queen collaboration.