???? - SEKUNDENSCHLAF VINYL (LP)

Release Date: 12th January 2018

The debut LP from the mysterious Russian electronica producer via Blackest Ever Black. Sleep-deprived breakbeat-driven vignettes of unclear authorship from somewhere west of Lake Lagoda near the Russia-Finland border. Sekundenschlaf (which means "microsleep"—refers to that split second on the train or in a meeting when you nod off) has significant points of correspondence with contemporary European electronic music as well as the golden age of (early) jungle and ambient techno. But its response to tradition and to the zeitgeist is idiosyncratic to say the least – with an atmosphere and psychogeography rooted in the tranquillity and majesty of Western Russian nature and the anxiety and distress of the country’s post-Soviet working class. Pastoral calm meets dissonance and unease. The music has a loose improvised feel but its arrangements are intricate its melodies iridescent: cascading arpeggios that stir a sense of optimism and renewal sighing string-pads that evoke the deepest melancholy. Rhythms simultaneously hyped-up and burned-out collapsing in on themselves as they race to destinations unknown. All bound together with field recordings of eavesdropped conversations blurred into abstraction a droning subliminal menace. An electronica record to make you sit and and take notice. Do not miss it!