In October, hypnotic Chilean krautrock duo Föllakzoid will weave our Komuna Hall into a musical trance of ambient soundscapes, suffused with the ancient mysticism of the Andes. For their first visit to Ljubljana, the band will present their new album I, recorded in collaboration with our SONICA Festival 2017 guest Atom™ and published by one of the best American labels of today, Sacred Bones. We’ll warm up with Croatians Šumovi Protiv Valova, who captured their world of passionate psychedelic and improvised music this year on their album debut, which is being praised by regional critics on all sides.
Föllakzoid was founded a decade ago by three childhood friends who found a common point between German Krautrock tradition and South American native spirituality in musical trances, enveloped in a rich yet minimalist atmosphere. In doing so, the now two-member band is devoted to so-called depuration, freeing their music from impurity, which in practice translates to filling increasingly longer spans of time with increasingly fewer individual elements.
In the search for their musical identity, Föllakzoid are thus stripping their sound back, which is also evident on this year’s album I, their fourth and a thrilling voyage through post-apocalyptic urban landscapes. Unlike the band’s previous albums, I was not recorded in one take with a full band – instead, the members sent individual sequences to acclaimed producer Uwe Schmidt, who has played at Šiška in 2017 with his Flanger and Atom™ projects as part of the SONICA festival. Schmidt combined the received material in line with his own vision, with the resulting joint work again published by the famed Sacred Bones label, home to past Šiška guests such as Marissa Nadler, Zola Jesus and Pharmakon. Föllakzoid now invite you as well to join their unforgettable sonic experience in October.
“This album is an epic story, told with enviable music knowledge, and the materialisation of the band’s skills is finally opening the way to broader audiences,” concludes one of the many approving reviews of the Zagreb-based band Šumovi protiv valova self-titled debut, released this yrat and recorded in the increasingly iconic studio Kramasonik – no wonder, as the studio’s head is also a member of the band.
The quartet of veteran Croatian musicians, familiar from bands such as Kukuriku Street, Tena Novak and Vivian Girls, weaves soft, organic silences into a minimalist psychedelic world at the crossroads of musique concrete, proto-electronic compositions, the free-minded spirit of the 1960s, and kraut structures. The album has ensured that the band that has been the topic of discussion on the regional scene for some time now will continue to be the talk of the town, and their improvisational approach to live shows guarantees that their first visit to Šiška will be unique in all aspects.
Tickets on sale online and at Eventim outlets.
Organisation: Kino Šiška.
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