In talks with: Obwigszyh

Budapest-based composer and DJ Obwigszyh discusses his residency in Sweden, his creative methods, his upcoming material, and a new project.

Published September, 2024

“Subversion is my compositional process.” Slovak experimental musician Bolka talks about his releases. 

Exactly one year to the day since the release of his last album Smutné stropy (Sad Ceilings), one of the most remarkable Slovak recordings of the last year, the follow-up EP to Žiadzasamy is being released via the Weltschmerzen label. Bolka studied sonology in The Hague.

Published July, 2024

Cultivating tenderness through listening with Warm Winters Ltd.

Bratislava-based label Warm Winters Ltd. strives to weave a tender musical tapestry.

Published March, 2024

John Object’s Heat EP is a difficult pleasure.

Timur Dzhafarov aka John Object is a producer based in Kiev, Ukraine. We met & interviewed him in autumn 2017, while waiting for a gig in Kiev’s Plivka.

Published August, 2018

Easterndaze x Cashmere

We are starting a new collaboration with Berlin’s experimental radio Cashmere. Listen to our first show below, exploring the topics of capitalism, geography, with plenty of new/upcoming musics from our friends and beyond.

Published December, 2017

Infoporn + Dym Festival – two compilations showcasing the best of new Polish underground

Two noteworthy compilations have popped up in the space of a month showcasing the best of Polish underground/bedroom electronics. Although it’s slightly ridiculous to group musicians according to their passport - there’s no such thing as the Sound of Poland, or the Sound of Hungary, these two compilations are a vigorous example of the thriving state of this tiny, but increasingly exciting scene.

Published June, 2017

Mazut: Circling around violence

Mazut is a new duo that emerged from the thriving Polish underground music scene. Centred around the wonderful (and prolific) imprint BDTA, Mazut (waste oil in English) is an experimental platform for venting rage with doses of tranquility.

Published April, 2016

Somnoroase Pasarele – CO (Baba Vanga, 2016)

Somnoroase Pasarele. The birds that left the cage.

Published February, 2016

Trauma

Traumas are sketches from life. Life is made of traumatic sketches.

Published January, 2016

Molly – B-Sides & Rarities (Stoned To Death, 2015)

Molly’s debut on the Czech DIY label Stoned To Death Records is a bona fide journey into the world of synthetic sounds - with plenty of noodling, twisting and tweaking, filtering and arpeggio(ing). No wonder one of the tags on his Bandcamp album page is John Carpenter, the legendary synthaholic.

Published October, 2015

Dědečkova Tažná Zvěř – Kdo hýří dýmějemi, bude pokárán!

There’s something primordial about noise. The rawness and unhindered ways of sound, the sound almost hijacking its maker and using him or her as its medium.

Published September, 2015

Wsie

Bartosz Zaskórski is a Polish illustrator and occasional musician. According to his own words, he likes to draw “ trash-like things the most”.

Published July, 2015

Experimental Studio Bratislava Series 1 (4mg, 2015)

Experimental electronic music in Slovakia may be overlooked by the public, but its scene is not only quite big, but such a music has quite long and rich tradition here. During the socialist era in the Eastern Bloc, possibilities for creating such music were very limited.

Published April, 2015

Mind-altering substances – Meteorismo From Arkaim / CZ + SK Mix Vol. II

Two idiosyncratic compilations/mixtapes have come to light at the murky period of the end of the year, perhaps - unjustly - lost amid the glitzy xmess lights and bonhomie. Both are authored by one of the most intriguing personas of the Czech experimental music scene Jára Tarnovski.

Published January, 2015

Samčo, Brat Dážďoviek: Slovak national lo-fi uprising

Samčo, Brat Dážďoviek in the unconventional music waters of Slovakia, as well as the Czech Republic, is a well-known character. With the look of a perpetual nomad, he moves through various musical genres, turning them upside down, armed with playfullness of a child, bending and deconstructing them, until they reach a point where they profess the sign of “Samčo-esque” poetics.

Published December, 2014

Bűkko Tapes: Eastern European electronic alternative for your tapedeck

Brno, the second city of Czech Republic, has seen a gradual upsurge in underground sonic activities, aided by its ample student populace - both at the art and technical universities - resulting in a very interesting mix where art and technology come to each other’s service. The crew behind the DIY Arduino-based instrument Standuino is based there, now busy with the increasingly successful Bastl Instruments, who, coincidentally, also lent its support to the latest Brno electronic export - the label Bukko Tapes.

Published June, 2014

Czechoslovak No-Input Mixer Compilation

Is the no-input technique getting so popular in the Czech and Slovak Republics? Definitely not, but this compilation can give you the false impression that this may as well be true. Still, the contributors here are worth your attention and it would be a shame not to mention this release out now on the Czech netlabel Signals from Arkaim.

Published May, 2014

Lanuk: I don’t believe in perfect music

Last week, we brought out our fifth release on the Baba Vanga imprint. And similarly to the previous releases on the label, the decision to release it came very quickly.

Published April, 2014

Eastern Daze & Baba Vanga on Berlin Community Radio

For tracklist click here: Tracklist:Superskin - Suspicious Minds Superskin - Drown Superskin - Descent Somnoroase Paserele - 18_01 Somnoroase Paserele - 18_08 Somnoroase Paserele - 17_04 Střed Světa - Ozvena Zmackana Opodal Střed Světa - Travinou Obkliceni Střed Světa - untitled, unreleased Střed Světa - Tvorem v tíží země (Basic House Rub) Lightning Glove - Dream On (Ketamine God) - unreleased Sister Body - Secret Turned to Revulsion Heroiny S Olbricht & Carla Under Water - No Message (The Key) S Olbricht & Carla Under Water - Birds Nightmare Carpet - untitled Shamnelism - Shamnelism Plevna - Imperios Future Nuggets Střed Světa - Tvorem pod sluncem S Olbricht - III1 Synus006 - Dist_Black Jonáš Gruska - Lunars

Published March, 2014

Lanuk – o​(​O

There is music and sound that without any ornamentation or sycophantic tropes manages to evoke specific almost synaesthetic evocations. It is almost as if it didn’t need a particular source or origin, it is acousmatic, as if it existed alone, emitted into urban decay, those areas abandoned by the well-to-do and successful.

Published January, 2014

2013 in Slovak music by Samčo, brat dážďoviek

Samčo, brat dážďoviek is a Slovak musician and an enigma, with an affinity for subversion of national identities and all sorts of ideology recontextualisations. He is also an expert in obscure music, check out his article about the Czech and Slovak Bandzone scene here.

Published January, 2014

Podcast – Red For Colour Blind

Red For Color Blind by Easterndaze on Mixcloud The podcast created by the makers of the Red For Colour Blind blog, which is dedicated to an “invisible scene”, gathers various projects from the fringes of the Prague post-noise underground, mainly associated with the label and DIY collective KLaNGundKRaCH, which, coincidentally celebrates its 6th anniversary this November. Aside from Czech producers and ensembles, it also features foreigners active on the scene including Core of the Coalman or Romano Krzych.

Published November, 2013

Robert Piotrowicz’ – Lincoln Sea

‘Lincoln Sea’ is an almost 40-minutes multilayered composition, divided in two parts to fit the vinyl format. It’s a second Robert Piotrowicz solo album this year, coming after enthusiastically received ‘When Snakeboy is Dying’.

Published October, 2013

Somnoroase Păsărele – ABECD – pataphysics technoulipo

Somnoroase Păsărele, named after a famous eponymous poem by a Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu, is a duo from is a duo from Romania, based between the coastal city of Constanta and the capital Bucharest. Gili Mocanu is an established painter and together with Elena Album, also a visual artist, they have started a musical endeavor, quirky and tactical, organic yet otherwordly, witty and utterly serious at the same time.

Published September, 2013

Extraterrestrial: Jonáš Gruska – CAA#9

Jonáš Gruska is an Institute of Sonology graduate, runs the LOM label and creates music under the Binmatu alias. His latest release comes courtesy of the Russian label Cyland Audio Archive on polycarbonate squares.

Published August, 2013

LOM label podcast

LOMcast by Easterndaze on Mixcloud LOM is a Slovak experimental label, focusing on the avantgarde, electroacoustic, and adventurous. It started in 2011, when Jonas Gruska, LOM’s heart and soul, was studying at the Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands.

Published July, 2013

Andrej Danóczi – 13 0410

Andrej Danóczi is a lone runner of the alternative scene in Trenčín, Slovakia. The spectrum of his activity is wide, he makes commercial music but also challenging experimental collages, often in lo-fi, amorphous areas.

Published June, 2013

Der Wurst of Samčo – Samčo, Brat Dážďoviek & Varovec Produkšns

Our latest podcast is the weirdest stuff we are publishing, a totally manic melange of voices, recordings, samples, gabba, slam poetry, Slovak songs, electronics, and whatnot. In a way, reminescent of The Residents’ sonic mischief, Samčo delivers 34-minutes worth of material dug out from his own aural archive as well as his own label Varovec Produkšns.

Published June, 2013

Střed Světa – Remixes

Our friend Střed Světa released an eponymous debut album earlier this year on our little baby, the Baba Vanga label. The idiosyncratic producer, who prefers to work in his Bohemian seclusion, has recontextualized years of sonic activities into a remarkable journey that bubbles, floats, crackles and hypnotizes.

Published June, 2013

Last Foundation podcast + interview

Last Foundation is a relatively new imprint curated by Gábor Lázár, operating from the burgeoning Budapest electronic music scene. Though you wouldn’t even know it, since their roster includes stars of the international noise and experimental scene including Ekoplekz or Russell Haswell, which they release on tapes, usually as split releases with their local affiliated producers.

Published May, 2013

RSS Boys – TH T00TH 0F TH FTR

RSS Boys, the enigmatic project emerged last year as part of Mik Musik’s Secret Editions series. Their quirky techno has already caught our ears with their debut release, and recently, their track appeared on a Wire Tapper CD.

Published March, 2013

SFA005 – Zelený Antoin

Recorded at our Easterndaze event in Brno in 2011, and in summer 2013 at Bratislava’s FUGA, a psychedelic, post-punky noise-driven journey into disquieting sonic realms, is now being released as a free download by the Czech netlabel Signals from Arkaim. The audio instantly brings recollections of the dinghy environs of the Boro club, where Antoin unleashed his psychedelic voyage, on a bleak autumn night.

Published March, 2013

Wilhelm Bras – Wordless Songs by the Electric Fire – DIY analogue noodling

Mik Musik has revamped itself last year with a slew of releases, mysteriously titled, and following in a gritty, psychedelic danceable vein. Mostly part of its super secret anonymous edition, acts like RSS Boys, Mangrove Mangrave or PAWEL PESEL, have pursued a wonky, exploratory techno direction, without utilising many of the usual genre tropes.

Published February, 2013

B.ATL – SKTCH EP /aka a glitchy disorientation, electronics exploration/

When we visited Macedonia’s capital Skopje, the punkish Kanal 103 radio, located in the socialist remnant of a building surrounded by a police station and a hooker strip, it seemed like the place where anyone making anything worthwile sonically, congregated. Running their own shows, playing concerts, etc.

Published February, 2013

Střed Světa podcast

A psychedelic journey into the musical mind of Střed Světa, whose cassette appeared on our affiliated Baba Vanga rec at the end of January. A lysergic techno for psychedelic minds is how we dubbed it /in a particularly uninventive spark of logorhea/.

Published February, 2013

!CZECH: exploration of adventurous Bohemian sounds

Ondřej Hlaváč, a music journalist and a blogger, has put together a compilation, a mix that documents the current state of idiosyncratic Czech underground music, merging varius subcultures and communities, which is downloadable from his blog Freakshow. From cosmic compositions, through Suicide-sounding desolate atmospherics, doom pop and beyond.

Published January, 2013

Střed Světa – Střed Světa /Baba Vanga, 2013/

After having travelled half of /the eastern/ part of Europe over the last two or three years, and meeting and discovering amazing music, we have decided we want to make it heard, loud and physical. Thus, we are delving into the label game, with a simple aim - expose music that somehow stands out through idiosyncratic existence.

Published January, 2013

Jonáš Gruska: Nocturnal oscillations for one

Jonáš Gruska is the man behind the fledgling LOM imprint, a platform for all kinds of outthere sounds, digital noise and unhindered experimentation. Following their split release /read our review here/, a “high-frequency” trading music, Jonáš delivers his “Nočné oscilácie pre jedného” /“Nocturnal oscillations for one”/, a mellow analogue journey conducted in the studios of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where Gruska studies.

Published December, 2012

Stroon, Mrkva/Bolka, Poo – Bratislava sonics’ new releases

Night-time Bratislava - Kamenné Námestie We’ve already given praise to Bratislava’s electronic scene in the past and the truth is, the good things are still going on. Be sure to check this triple combo of excellent releases from Slovakia’s capital Bratislava.

Published December, 2012

PAWEŁ PESEL – EKSCENTRYZM /Mik Musik!/ – Exclusive stream

The revamped label Mik Musik! have been going from strength to strength with several noteworthy releases as of late /check out our review of their previous ace release by the mysterious RSS Boys here/, navigating in the experimental dance territory, techno for the twisted minds and adventurous souls, we could call it. Its latest record is by PAWEŁ PESEL, a pseudonym whose real identity shall remain hidden, since this is part of Mik Musik!’s secret editions series.

Published November, 2012

Plunderphonics: label interview

New label alert. Plunderphonics is a new digital imprint established this year by the 18-year old Krystian Stebnicki.

Published September, 2012

Mik Musik special podcast

Mik Musik - Dark Late Summer Mix by Easterndaze on Mixcloud What is the genealogy of Mik Musik?The usual - nobody wanted to release our music, so we did it ourselves. It was the early nineties.

Published September, 2012

Sultan Hagavik – SAME PRZEBOJE

“One day in more than less unspecified circumstances we decided to play on mc players and it lasts until now.” In a succint, yet appropriate description in the Biography section on their Facebook profile, the Polish duo explains their raison d'etre.

Published August, 2012

Subspecies – Subspecies (selfreleased, 2012)

Bratislava-based visual artist Boris Vitázek aka Stix is a well known VJ working mostly with the post-dubstep producer Stroon. Stix is also the main force behind the techno nights Trashold in the now legendary venue Subclub.

Published July, 2012

Sangoplasmo summer sounds

Following their lofi electronics spring installment, featuring the likes of Ensemble Economique or Decimus, this time the Polish label returns with a summer selection that features artists from their home turf, as well as the cultish K Salvatore aka Jason Meagher and Pat Murano. Sound-wise it follows in a more experimental, avantgardish vein.

Published June, 2012

Jamka: An analogue journey podcast + exclusive download of their track Jopra

JAMKA - [x] years podcast by Easterndaze on Mixcloud 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.

Published May, 2012

Easterndaze Vol 2: Judgment Day – new compilation

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.

Published May, 2012

SYNUS0006 – B4CK6ROUNDNO1SE XX1 (B4CK6ROUNDNO1SE, 2012)

After last year’s techno boom, with several more than decent comebacks of mavericks like Surgeon or Regis, straightforward pounding beats started to invade the minds of the music producers around the globe once again. Hungary is no exception and that’s the place from where SYNUS0006 puts out his latest release on the B4CK6ROUNDNO1SE sub-label of the Hungarian Panel Trax imprint.

Published April, 2012

Synus0006 – Five Years Later EP (Chi Recordings)

Synus0006 aka Laslow Bényei returned to renowned Hungarian label Chi Recordings with his latest output symbolically titled Five Years Later, after Da Micro Cop EP back in 2006. Synus0006 spent the last five years tirelessly producing a lot of tunes to release them on various labels.

Published March, 2012

Magma Trakt’s aural tripping

“Magma Trakt is an annual crawling plant, the harbinger of the Otherworldly and the immanent presence of the Interdimensional. Ranging in colour from purple to neonatally rosy this plant of entoxicating scent and grandiose ambush decore can be found climbing the walls of reality tunnels.

Published March, 2012

dAdA ACTa – Czechoslovakia unites against ACTA

Remember Czechoslovakia ? The small country once part of the Communist Ost Block? The country that, after its Velvet Revolution and playwright-cum-president Václav Havel, broke apart into Czech Republic and Slovakia ? Well, now it’s united again.  The events of January 18th and #OpMegaupload have spawned not only the first generation of the Czechoslovak Anonymous hivemind, that has DDOSed government agencies under the banner of #czsk ever since.

Published February, 2012

Crni Pek: Serbia’s thriving outsider music of the 90s

A new compilation put together by Nikola Vitkovic (as his independent endeavour) strives to highlight the buoyoant music scene of the troublesome period of Serbia’s history - the 1990s. It seems that the old maxim about art thriving in the age of general gloom is at play in this case as well.

Published January, 2012

2011 in Macedonian music by Toni Dimitrov

Toni Dimitrov is a mainstay in the Macedonian independent scene. He’s been a part of the brilliant Kanal 103 radio station (which we gatecrashed in autumn, more on that soon) for astonishing 14 years.

Published January, 2012

2k11 in music

The December selection of tracks is a special look back at the last year in music of Eastern Europe. Originally produced as a Xmass Special for the Czech national radio channel 4 - Radio Wave, we offer you the show without words, to enjoy one more look back at 2k11.

Published January, 2012

October + November Shizz

Another in our supposedly regular monthly podcasts presenting the best music we could come across in the given period (geographically attuned to our focus of course:). This installment turned out slightly deranged with lot of spoken word, psychedelia and twisted electronics.

Published December, 2011

Grobbing Thristle’s Other

It interesting how this geographical sonic mapping works. Now it seems to be focused on Poland somehow - at least in the last three articles that is:) The case in point today is the ‘new’ record by Poznan based psychedelic wyrd freaks Grobbing Thristle whom we also had on our compilation which you can still download for free here.

Published November, 2011

b.aTL: Gentle Mind EP

The title of b.aTL’s new record is slightly misleading, although for those in love with fucked up broken structures, twisted beats, squelches and squeaks, there’s no denying of this sonic quality.

Published November, 2011

Rentip – Burnside Odyssey (single, 2011)

The new LP of Robert Bittner, better known as Rentip - the more energetic half of the Slovak experimental duo Poo, has been long in the making. We were able to get a taste of Rentip’s beats via the rare occasions when he performed them live and we must say their abstract cinematic atmospheres kick ass in the same way as they encompass a rare mixture of psychedelic experimentalia influenced by the early Vancouver industrial scene.

Published October, 2011

[gallery]

Published October, 2011

Poo – Kappa-Opioid Gain (single, 2011)

Massive blocks of sound, eroded by entropy into weird fractal pictures of mankind’s downfall / empty cities ovegrown by nature / random flashes of violence slowly enter the sonic ecosystem inhabited by frequencies that flow down on tilted walls of noise. Ibogain kappagrams.

Published September, 2011

July shizz

July shizz by Easterndaze on Mixcloud We have a new social gizmo on Mixcloud (you can find us here), this time to upload podcasts, mixes and more concise sets. To kickstart our feature, we put together a selection of the finest tunes we found in July (partly played in our Habitat show).

Published July, 2011

Listening Lectures w/ Avoided & Marin

Bratislava’s underground electronic scene prepares a special gig for Monday: listeninglectures: visual by marin Avoided: Hangover Pop by uchylord ₩│╬₵├┤₴╟╢│╒╥Ɇʁ - You Came To My Party Depressed As A Shadow by uchylord Nihil Buldozer: Igor mortis by uchylord More on this Monday dementia (in Slovak) @ Radost music club, Bratislava, 11th of July » Read More

Published July, 2011

Synaptic transmissions

Synaptik aka Josef Šobra from Prague is fond of field recordings  (cat purring, deranged female moans, urban sonics) and various samples such as speeches by Communist nomenclature. His almost esoteric aural creations often accompany live visuals.

Published July, 2011

[gallery] Listen to the special Habitat collaborative radio from Bratislava’s Progressbar hackerspace. The lineup is composed of Bratislava’s dj’s, beatmakers and visual artists.

Published March, 2011

Various Artists – Zvukolom (LOM, 2011)

The idea for the new label LOM dedicated to “unknown or forgotten experimental artists ..

Published March, 2011

NEXT Festival 2010

Bratislava’s “advanced music” festival NEXT is starting in a couple of days. The 11th edition of NEXT is going to present artists such as FM Einheit, The Thing, Tarek Atoui, Mira Calix and others.

Published November, 2010

Easterndaze heads east (on 27 November 2010)

Published November, 2010

Stroon – Ruine Noire EP (Ruine Noire, 2010)

Bratislava’s sonic underground is a fertile place giving birth to exciting upcoming electronics projects. stroon is a multi-faceted musician, with many ties to projects ranging from collective improvisators (Frutti di Mare, Musica Falsa et Ficta) up to the beat-based future-funk collaboration Polyjoy/Femoxema.

Published October, 2010

In search of Belgrade’s sonic underbelly

First impressions of Belgrade from Avala train. September’s melancholic mood with last few glimpses of sunshine offered a perfect backdrop to our first Balkan-bound journey in our project.

Published October, 2010

Poznaň hyperactive

Napszyklat in the building where their current studio is located. The Poznaň music scene was probably the most interconnected and interesting from any Polish towns we had visited during our trip.

Published September, 2010

The beats, tones and rhythms of Warszawa

The symbol of the Warsaw Uprising, which we come across in form of a graffiti tag all over Warsaw Warsaw: its spacious streets and the central agglomeration of skyscrapers dominated by the famous Palace of Culture and Science from the first moments evoked a strong urban feeling contrasting with the the touristy “history museum” of Krakow. During WWII, 85% of the city was destroyed, the Jewish Ghetto with its 1943 Jewish uprising was laid to the ground in an act similar to the crude retaliation of the Hitler’s Army after the Warsaw uprising.

Published August, 2010

inside bratislava’s sonics

RBNX performing live on Listening Lectures in Radost. Bratislava is an epitome of the historical ruptures that shook the Central and Eastern European region over the course of the last century.

Published August, 2010