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07.10.06 Bowerbird, Philadelphia: Grundik Kasyansky (feedback synthesizer) w/ Shige Moriya (video), Ninni Morgia (guitar), Juan Merchan (movement)

Grundik Kasyansky is a sound artist composer and sound designer who apparently divides time between Moscow Tel Aviv and New York City. In 1995 he formed Grundik and Slava with Slava Smelovsky in Israel. Their 2005 concept album Frogs was the most compelling example of electro acoustic avant garde electronica that this writer encountered last year For his solo project however Grundik has stripped things right back. To the extent that he is working with delicate pitches, fragile textures of static and sharp pin pricks of sine tones, forming these almost intolerable micro symphonies of sound. His main instrument is feedback synthesizer, though he’s also working with radios in which he mines the gold barely off channel, computer and theremin. There are subtle skips, clips, tiny flutters of static as the radios and the digitalia bubble and pop aimlessly. Though generated via feedback these are quiet sounds requiring active listening, possibly best with headphones to block out any extraneous environmental sounds, as otherwise it would be easy to lose some of the subtlety in Grundik’s composition.

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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).
As suggested by the cover album and track titles, it is a conceptual opus dedicated to frogs, that also marks a collaboration with Victoria Hanna (vocals), Igor K (bass) and Vadim Gusis/Chaos As Shelter (vargan). The cd contains 10 tracks, ranging from experimental, ambient, (sometimes tribal, sometimes atmospheric) to avant-garde electronics…. The music, built upon a mixture of traditional instruments (guitar, ocarina, mbira…) with electronic sounds, ambient drones, and field recordings… manages to create a very special and organic atmosphere. Probably that free noise improvisation passages and the fact that the (voluntary absence of) structure of the tracks (that doesn’t make them sound like ‘real songs’) could make this outing difficult to apprehend. However, ears used to experimental de-constructions shouldn’t pass by this strange opus… Perhaps, will you even succeed in unveiling the mystery of the cd tray sentence ‘only frogs know…’.

‘Frogs’ comes in a slipcase featuring a frog on the (front and back) cover and includes an insert on special paper with information about the album and a live photo.

Nathalie F.
Winter 2006

A free downloadable Grundik+Slava live recording (in Jerusalem, April 15, 20004) is available via Qube and Topheth Prophet: www.qube.co.il/qarts.asp?qid=612

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01.10.06 – Grundiks’s electro-acoustic Kol Nidre with Frank London, Pearl Gluck and Michelle Miller at Tribeca Grill, 375 Greenwich St., New York, NY 10013

30.09.06 – Grundik’s duo with Gregory Reynolds at Chocolate Factory – 5-49 49th Avenue, long island city, ny, 11101. 10.30-11.00 pm.

17.09.06 8 pm at Inwood Hill Park (off 218th Street, next to the Nature Center) The first event in the OUTWOOD series (experimental art in Northern Manhattan). OUTWOOD #1 An Improvised Happening for Musicians, Dancers and Video Artist at the Top of Manhattan Sunday, Sept. 17, 8 pm Inwood Hill Park free/donation OUTWOOD #1 is a multimedia happening for simultaneous live music, video mixing and movement coming together as multiple “solo” improvisations within a given time frame. The participants are free to act and react as they see fit while remaining aware of the fact that they are within a shared vicinity and working within a common timeframe. The participants are asked to remain aware of the fact that they are the center of a multidimensial “sculpture” which will grow since from beginning of the performance and will be destroyed immediately after it ends. The organic process of creation suggests staging the event outdoors. The Inwood Hill Park event video will include video projection onto tree leaves and the artists. Musicians will play along with ambient sounds and dancers will “transform” into trees and water. The company will include emerging and more established Inwood residents along with members of Brooklyn based CAVEnsemble and artists from other parts of the city, rediscovering together the beauty of Manhattan’s secret paradise. Grundik Kasyansky (direction, feedback synthesizer) w/ Kurt Gottschalk (banjo, bouzouki), Erika Hassan (movement), Juan Merchan (movement),Ninni Morgia (guitar), Shige Moriya (live video mixing), Gregory Reynolds (sax), Petre Radu Scafaru (reeds), Len Siegfried (guitar)

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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, ‘Frogs’ is an accomplished work, a fitting soundtrack to a night spent dreaming on the rain forest floor. Grundik+Slava’s intelligent use of sound, over ten intertwined audio works on this album, provide the listener with eerie, damp soundscapes bustling with life. Victoria Hanna’s vocals drone in an almost psychedelic fashion, adding to the remote feeling of the recording. ‘Frogs’ is an extremely experimental album, but by keeping their subject-matter prominent Grundik+Slava have created a very listenable recording. This is a challenging CD that is also highly enjoyable to listen to.

The best release of the three is however from a Russian musician living in New York: Grundik Kasyansky. He had releases on State Art (see Vital Weekly 424) and Creative Sources Recordings (see Vital Weekly 530). His instruments include a computer, small theremin, radios and feedback synthesizer, although he limits himself to the latter here. Recorded on December 28th last year, he plays some ultra soft music. Soft peeps with lots of silence in between. If you put the volume all the way up, you may even hear much more sounds that aren’t unlike insects or bugs in your room. Quite an intense release, this one.

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