Bolka + Šimanský Vaľko Podracký

BOLKA

Bolka is known as the man with the hat. His hat has been through a lot: glitch and microtonal experiments, studies at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague. A few years ago the original one fell apart - by then he was already a fixture of the Slovak experimental scene and was releasing his debut album "smutné stropy", which bubbles with motifs, humour and pop sensibility layered over detailed sonic landscapes.

On the album Schwarzkopf, Bolka returns with a wish to have thick black hair. Love songs moving somewhere between freak folk orchestra, deconstructed ballads and ecstatic melancholy build the album on juxtapositions that are distinctive yet strangely familiar. Amorous whispers collide with absurd jokes and surrealist imagery - intimate confessions brush against radical playfulness and the poetic borders on delightfully absurd.

schwarztkopf | Bolka | mappa

ŠIMANSKÝ VAĽKO PODRACKÝ

A brand new project by three musicians. Michal Vaľko, alias Line Gate, has been reliably weaving ambient sessions with niněrou and vocals for years. Jakub Šimanský is a pioneer of domestic guitar "primitivism" - his collaboration with Tomáš Niesner has garnered attention, and both share a past in the noise rock band Unna. In this trio, however, he plays exclusively lap steel and banjo. Ján Podracký, who handles recorders and occasionally harmonica or melodica, teaches at FaVU and works in contemporary classical music - at the Ostravské dny festival he has had several premieres of his compositions over the years.

Together they weave purely acoustic and strongly hypnotic sound tapestries. A debut recording is still awaited. (Co.labs)