Improv and ghostly drone/ambient constructions are mixed with field recordings of frogs (and freshwater environments) and haunting vocal improvisations from singer Victoria Hanna by the Israeli duo Grundik/Slava. Sort of creepy, but very pretty. The chirping of frogs and crickets mingles with Victoria's strange, witchy enunciations and child-like gibberish, while bass guitars, howling wind, guitar, ocarina, drum machines, theremin, music box, singing bowls, and mbira swirl and clatter in the background. Very dreamlike and drony and spectral-sounding. Victoria's vocals are genuinely weird, shifting between breathy vocal drones , dramatic harmonies, and strange aboriginal chants. Part endless drone, part free-psych-folk, and part avant-electronica,
Frogs sort of reminds us of a weird cross between Charalambides, Dead Raven Choir, and Dead Can Dance. Drone hero Chaos As Shelter collaborated on some of these tracks.
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- Сентябрь 1, 2005: Cyclic Defrost 12, Frogs, September 2005
Ok yep, a frog concept album from Israeli sound artists and electronic duo Grundik Igor Kasyansky and Slava Smelovsky. In fact frogs are mentioned in pretty much every song title, such as a frog gets over his fear of water and the old frogs dream. But why frogs? “Only frogs know,” says the cd tray,
- Июль 2, 2005: Aversionline, Frogs
I believe this is my first exposure to this duo, and on this 45-minute disc they explore a range of experimental approaches using computers, guitars, ocarina, drum machines, theremin, a music box, singing bowls, mbira, field recordings, and electronics – all dedicated to frogs, for whatever reason. It’s actually the second release in the group’s
- Август 31, 2006: Talek Glover, taking notes, Frogs, 2006
Creating an audio work that is both interesting and that achieves it’s objective of representing the world of frogs is no easy thing to do. However Grundik+Slava have done just that and it works surprisingly well. Using a combination of techniques including field recordings, electronics, electroacoustics, synthesisers, noise and drones, built around Victoria’s improvised vocals,
- Июнь 28, 2005: Industrial.org, Frogs, 06.28.2005
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
- Октябрь 2, 2006: Haimdallr, Frogs, Winter 2006
Released in March 2005 as a joint effort between the two labels Auris Media and Topheth Propheth, ‘Frogs’ of the Israeli-American electronic duo Grundik+Slava is the direct follow-up (and the second instalment in the ‘Fauna’ series) to ‘… for electronic and birds’ (out on State Art a couple of years ago).
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