Forest techno-- Zavoloka -- mentioned in AGF "Wire" interview

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also, vahid-approved forest-techno purveyor dominik eulberg (who wanders the snow-covered woods and watches birds in the most recent issue of the dvd magazine slices) says he wants to be a park ranger when he grows up

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:29 (seventeen years ago) link

isn't he already a park ranger? or a bio postdoc or something?

i might be teaching env sci this summer

DEEDS NOT WORDS (vahid), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:32 (seventeen years ago) link

let's just cut to the chase and talk about james holden's "safari".

zavoloka just sounds like autechre vs bjork outtakes.

tuomas take a cold shower.

DEEDS NOT WORDS (vahid), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:33 (seventeen years ago) link

What? I was trying to be sarcastic there.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:34 (seventeen years ago) link

check out this 1999 interview in De:Bug with Wolfgang Voigt, titled The German Forest in the Disco (translated into english!)

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:34 (seventeen years ago) link

james holden: hobbit, elf or druid?

DEEDS NOT WORDS (vahid), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Wolfgang Voigt on forest techno: "When I was a child, I had to go to the Alps and the forests etc. three times a year with Mom and Dad, whether I wanted or not. That formed me, I appreciate and love that a lot....in the case of GAS, the sound worlds of Wagner or Alban Berg are excellently suited to tell again the good old fairy tale of the German forest in the most beautiful colours of pop, in a completely different way. It's the attempt at creating an intensification that is closer to us by using very deep sound structures, and which we may call Techno from very far, but which isn't Techno any more...I don't think it's melancholic, but the working method does imply a certain kind of heaviness, a kind of viscosity. Music without beginning and without end, cushioned contours that fall softly into the space, that seem to overrule temporal schemes. GASeous music, caught by a bass drum just marching by, that streams, streams out through the underwood across the forest soil...."Königforst" of course refers to the Königsforst, a forest on the right bank of the Rhine. That's a mixed forest outside Cologne, oak, fir, beech etc., you know! A reference point of my hippie adolescence rich with content, to sharpen consciousness for the deeper aspects of electronic life: the German forest on acid."

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:41 (seventeen years ago) link

i had a nice spiritual experience in august 1995, waking up lakeside under a full moon in the black forest at 2 am and hearing the entire valley breathing. i think i was high from the 30 or 40 mosquito bites i'd gotten.

i was listening to ... uh ... this cd and this cd and "return of the space cowboy" and "royalties overdue".

DEEDS NOT WORDS (vahid), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:43 (seventeen years ago) link

also the cover of Zauberberg is a red-tinted forest!

michael mayer grew up in the black forest region of germany. when i met triple r, he said he liked living away from the city center, around lots of trees, and that being around the woods and the water was very important. he said he was a "child of the Rhine"--he is quite the hippie. then again, most germans would probably be considered hippies by american standards.

the pre-kraftwerk band Organisation had a great jam called "silver forest". there are probably tons of krautrock references to forests, but i should go to bed.

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I want rain forest dance music more than rhine forest dance music right now.

Villalobos swamp techno = like rainforest dance music but sort of sluggish and congealed.

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 14:11 (seventeen years ago) link

actually the swamp is a much more active ecosystem than a rainforest: richer soil, more diverse plants, more decomposition, etc.

DEEDS NOT WORDS (vahid), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 14:19 (seventeen years ago) link

ha ha that applies to villalobos too. Basically I'm specifically asking for birdcalls and crickets chirping rather the soil decomposing and plants growing and frogs burping.

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link

yo g are you into the bit where eulberg cracks onto the fur coat woman? what a legend.

as for forest techno - i concur = konigsforst is badass. the cover is really badly printed tho!

ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link

a) I have been on tons of cold medicine recently, and put an extra 'lo' in there when I was writing it on my hand.
b) She isn't really that good. Damn.
c) I was 11 in 1995. So excuse me for not being aware of the 'passe' phenomenon of forest techno.

trees (treesessplode), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link

the most fun i ever had at a rave was one i went to in Budapest. it was nestled into a hillside outside out town and you had to walk through this misty forest in the middle of the night to get there. to hear the bass bumping through the moonlit mists walking among these immense trees was indescribably beautiful, magickal, and made the anticipation that much higher.

imbidimts, Wednesday, 3 May 2006 18:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Forest techno: "Every Man and Woman Is a Star", maybe?

Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 18:12 (seventeen years ago) link

And this:

http://duskdigital.com/albums/dusksleeves/BFLCD42Bklt1.sized.jpg

Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Though the first thing these word brought to my mind is all the hippie forest parties psych trance people have, at least here in Finland. My ex-flatmates used to go to those, if I'd get near one I'd run as fast as I can to the opposite direction.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 18:16 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, i was just about to say! imbidimt's experience reminded me of the psy-trance parties that happen around SF, in sort of mountainous, wooded areas.

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link

celebrate whatever!

philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link

in answer to vahid's query up above: james holden is an elf, nathan fake is a pixie or something, and the mfa are druids (one of them is welsh!)

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 20:02 (seventeen years ago) link

hi geeta.

imbidimts, Wednesday, 3 May 2006 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link

hey andy!

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 21:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Ah, you crazy techno people, you crazy!

I was at a Persian market the other day and they were selling CDs by a dude called "V*hid" and I was trying to imagine the beats.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 21:41 (seventeen years ago) link

aw god is tribal techno back?

Good Dog (Good Dog), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 21:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Wasn't there a band called Deep Forest?

ratty, Wednesday, 3 May 2006 22:17 (seventeen years ago) link

five years pass...

So there is some Ukranian lady with mounds of analogue synths, named Zavoloka supporting the ginger one at upcoming gigs - is this the same person?

Because I am *all* about the arty electronic ladies with mounds of analogue synths but the description upthread is really not chiming with what I'm hearing on Spodify?

Aphex Twin … in my vagina? (Karen D. Tregaskin), Thursday, 21 July 2011 10:04 (twelve years ago) link

So far, this is not "Deep Forest" type techno at all, in fact barely techno, but more wibbly wubbly droney space electronics in a Laurie Spiegel stylee? But with beats, it's not all wub. (Then again, is Appalaichan Grove proto-Forest Techno?)

I'm listening to an album called Vedana from 2011, perhaps her earlier stuff is very different. I like this album, tho.

Aphex Twin … in my vagina? (Karen D. Tregaskin), Thursday, 21 July 2011 10:37 (twelve years ago) link

OK, I went and listened to an album from 2005 and it was indeed glitchy rubbitch. But this later stuff is very very good and droney and wonderful.

Ah, the joys of reviving abandonned threads from 2006 and talking to yourself.

Aphex Twin … in my vagina? (Karen D. Tregaskin), Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:06 (twelve years ago) link

the ginger one is touring?

was listening some AGF/Delay stuff last night while it was raining. still good.

Crackle Box, Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:10 (twelve years ago) link

The Ginger One is currently on the eternal "Pay My Alimony" Tour.

Zavoloka seems to be supporting in Copenhagen and Manchester? Anyway, I like her recent stuff. She seems to have done an album with AGF, too, which I'll listen to.

Wish the thread title were spelled correctly though. :-/

Aphex Twin … in my vagina? (Karen D. Tregaskin), Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:15 (twelve years ago) link

The pic on the WHP's website caught my eye

http://www.zavoloka.com/zavoloka_photos/zavoloka_at_GRM_INA.jpg

(warning: very very VERY embiggened image)

And sometimes, you can just look at an artist and know that you will like them? That. I am so easily swayed by massive pieces of semi-homemade looking beknobbed oscillators. Shallow, moi?

Aphex Twin … in my vagina? (Karen D. Tregaskin), Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:20 (twelve years ago) link

Talking of shallow I was going to say she looks pretty

R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:22 (twelve years ago) link

I've also just realised this picture was taken HERE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_national_de_l%27audiovisuel

and nearly fell off my chair because it's not just massive analogue kit, it's massive analogue kit belonging to the French equivalent of the radiophonic workshop? ::swoon::

Aphex Twin … in my vagina? (Karen D. Tregaskin), Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:24 (twelve years ago) link

talking of tasty gear somehow this thread led me on to a thomas p heckmann youtube binge thinking that some of his techno is foresty but it's not really

anyway his studio is a good source of gear porn

http://blog.rebellen.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Thomas-p-heckmann-synthesizer-museum.jpg

man i need more techno like this in my life

Crackle Box, Thursday, 21 July 2011 13:36 (twelve years ago) link

and nearly fell off my chair because it's not just massive analogue kit, it's massive analogue kit belonging to the French equivalent of the radiophonic workshop? ::swoon::

yeah that was taken at INA-GRM. not exactly the equivalent of BBC Radiophonic, but the birthplace of musique concrete, founded by Schaeffer w/ Henry.

and the modular she's playing is the classic Coupigny: http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2008/11/mighty-coupigny-modular.html

used most widely by Parmegiani, if you know his late 60's/early 70's pieces you know the Coupigny. after Parmegiani's music started getting rediscovered in the late 90's, visitors to GRM started asking about it so they brought it up from the basement

I checked out zavoloka's soundcloud page, not all that radical but nice and I like the vocal samples

Milton Parker, Thursday, 21 July 2011 20:59 (twelve years ago) link

music of course does not need to be radical alla time

Milton Parker, Thursday, 21 July 2011 20:59 (twelve years ago) link

Thomas Heckmann has his own synth museum as well if I recall. He's underrated as far as I'm concerned. I listened to Raum just the other day. Get yr Shranz on..

mmmm, Thursday, 21 July 2011 21:54 (twelve years ago) link

I wonder if my mind would go straight from "forest techno" to "Gas" if he had not called an album Königsforst

(by which I mean, is the music intrinsically foresty, or only because he put it in a box labelled "forest"?)

anyway space-beats Spiegel-techno is just as intriguing, thank you thread

the ascent of nyan (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 21 July 2011 22:00 (twelve years ago) link

I think the sample based nature of Gas is evocative of the natural landscape for sure. I used to listen to Pop while imaging a small brook or stream flowing past. Currently listening to Elfish Echo pres. Sato Yumiko which has a forest feel to it's dubby techno beats.

mmmm, Thursday, 21 July 2011 22:18 (twelve years ago) link

Ah, thanks for the clarification, Milton, I'm not at all familiar with Musique Concrete and my descriptions of INA-GRM were based solely on poorly translated webpages. Still looks like an amazing place and glad to have an ID on the synth.

Aphex Twin … in my vagina? (Karen D. Tregaskin), Friday, 22 July 2011 09:32 (twelve years ago) link

the split single with clifford / seefeel on polyfusia a couple of years ago is worth a listen. and the recent svitlo ep is great too.

(i sent off to ukraine for the first couple of lps after hearing the seefeel split ep. the new ones are available on amazon. yay, internet!)

(and for me it was this photo: http://www.zavoloka.com/zavoloka_photos/zavoloka_at_EMS_b.jpg )

koogs, Friday, 22 July 2011 11:42 (twelve years ago) link

five years pass...

Anyone heard Syngonia yet? She's been one of my favorite finds the last 2-3 years on the experimental/IDM front. Curious how it compares to Vedana

octobeard, Thursday, 9 March 2017 19:20 (seven years ago) link

i've heard it only twice but it hasn't grabbed me as much yet. it seemed to have more regular beats on this one.

(it's the third part of a sequence which started with Viter in 2007, if you've not heard that. Air, Water and now Earth)

plenty of other back catalogue stuff available too.

koogs, Thursday, 9 March 2017 21:54 (seven years ago) link

I've only heard Nature Makes The Same Sound Twice but will definitely check this out.

Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 10 March 2017 02:16 (seven years ago) link

"Nature Never Produces The Same Beat Twice" **

Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 10 March 2017 02:19 (seven years ago) link

another listen suggests that there are a lot more programmed "drums" on this new record, a drum track driving things or, at least, distracting from the underlying tunes. which is ok, but not really my expectation of a zavoloka record.

another listen to vedena suggests that the drums were always there, they just didn't bother me as much 8) (they are slower and more distorted here, less drummy somehow, maybe that's it)

koogs, Friday, 10 March 2017 11:59 (seven years ago) link

my absolute favourite thing of hers is svitlo

https://soundcloud.com/zavoloka/svitlo

the bit from 3:20 onwards is my current ringtone

koogs, Friday, 10 March 2017 12:06 (seven years ago) link

Just listened to the new one last night. Very nice... but yes, less adventurous and epic as Vedana, but still really solid. Kinda wish it was a bit longer actually.

octobeard, Friday, 10 March 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link

nine months pass...

New one really clicked today. Love how the beats are covered in a static blanket. Definitely a grower which almost sounded rote on the first few listens; but this is some fine insectoid techno with lovely ambient bits

kolakube (Ross), Friday, 22 December 2017 20:51 (six years ago) link

two years pass...

New album, Ornament popped up via Spotify Hipster Boyfriend and it is predictably wonderful!

I am forever looking for this thread, to revive and go "this is some awesome shit, maaaan" and never finding it because of the misspelling. Should we maybe get that changed?

Branwell with an N, Friday, 16 October 2020 12:34 (three years ago) link

sad to see Kvitnu stopping. i must have about 20 odd things from that label (and would've bought more during their sales except i could never remember what i already had)

koogs, Friday, 16 October 2020 12:52 (three years ago) link

They were a very cool little label, and I always meant to buy more from them than I did, but usually by the time I got to looking at their neat stuff, it had usually sold out!

I think Zavoloka have her / their (I think it may be more than one person now?) own bandcamp and I should go and throw some money at them because it's A+++ quality stuff.

Branwell with an N, Friday, 16 October 2020 13:01 (three years ago) link

This is the label they're on now:

https://prostir.bandcamp.com/album/ornament

Branwell with an N, Friday, 16 October 2020 13:01 (three years ago) link

she now seems to work with Kotra a lot, whose solo stuff had too much of a prediliction for white noise for me.

am sure the Kvitnu bandcamp page will continue.

their last release was a white 7" single with a locked groove of silence, called 'Silence'. https://kvitnu.bandcamp.com/album/silence

koogs, Friday, 16 October 2020 15:04 (three years ago) link


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