Kunstkamera

To the best of my knowledge, “Frogs” is the first I’ve heard of Grundik + Slava. I definitely had no clue what to expect, but I more or less took the cute frog drawing on the cover as an indication that it would either be really good or really bad. Luckily, this record falls into the latter category.

The audio here is a really cool take on the experimental ambient genre, creating beautiful soundscapes using dark synth sweeps, found sounds, guitars and a bunch of other things. There are a few tracks where they go into completely different territory- especially the second track, ‘a frog gets over his fear of water’, which sounds like some aliens kidnapped a funk band- but mostly they stick to the really experimental ambient stuff. “Frogs” also features the talents of Chaos As Shelter, Igor Krutugolov and Victoria Hanna, the latter of which contributes vocals on half of the tracks, giving them a really weird feel, adding a somewhat playful side to the darker tracks. I especially love her vocals on the fourth track, “women of rain forest”. imagine if the vocalist from melt banana took a lot of lithium and really sang; it’s bizarre and cute, but undeniably beautiful.

There are some more traditional middle eastern elements here and there, but mostly this disc keeps to its really nice experimental dark ambient textures with the previously mentioned hanna’s vocals popping in to add even more texture. There are always new sounds coming into the mix, it never gets boring. In a lot of ways this makes me think of Throbbing Gristle’s more soundscape driven works, because it has that definite vibe to it.

Conclusion:
This album rules! Go embrace the frog now, motherfucker!

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After birds, the Russian/Israeli project Grundik + Slava now deals with frogs. Don’t have nightmares about Paul McCartney’s ‘We all stand together’ now, the watery creatures don’t play such a dominant role. With the help of renowned guest musicians Victoria Hanna, Igor Krutogolov and Vadim Gusus (Chaos as Shelter), an interesting electro-acoustic ambient creation has come to life. With a variety of instruments, fields recordings, live electronics, improvised vocals by Victoria and computer and computer manipulations, Grundik + Slava have created a very lively collage (or audio book as they call it) dedicated to the frogs and their environment.

I find this album less accessible than their previous album “…For Electronics and Birds”, which sounded more relaxing instead of improvised and eclectic. On “Frogs” there are meditative moments with subtle melodies, ongoing drones and atmospheric synths washing over you, but also tracks with experimental structures, jazzy improvisations and extrovert outbursts with many instruments on top of each other. The album is an interesting and intense exploration in which they try to cross many boundaties, but the whole sounds to improvised and chaotic too my taste. There are some excellent moments, in which the drones, textures and sounds organically come together, but in general “Frogs” is a little too fragmented for me.

A joint release between Auris Media and Topheth Prophet.

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Grundik + Slava create electro-acoustic work using a wide variety of electronic and acoustic instruments, and occasional singing. On this CD they’re joined by Victoria Hanna, Igor Krutogolov (Kruzenshtern & Parahod) and Chaos as Shelter in a series of pieces about frogs. Yes, frogs. “The forest made of rain and frogs,” “the old frog’s dream,” “one more song about frog”… as the inner tray insert says, “only frogs know…” The work is intensely interesting, melodic and rich constructions that flow very nicely, and still manage to speak of frogs and forest life in a reflective way that’s difficult to explain but wonderful to listen to. A CD that’s been in heavy rotation at Squidco Radio.

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