Gultskra Artikler - "Industria" [2015]

Artist: Gultskra Artikler

Title: Industria

Genre: Ambient, IDM, Percussion Industrial

Country: Russia
Year: 2015

Track List:

1. Distortion
2. Melted Percussions
3. Thunderfall
4. Phone Hum
5. Short Circuit
6. o---o------o--------o
7. Exercise With Metal
8. Rust and Drop
9. Savage Mechanism
10. Beams of Light Through the Cloud of Dust
11. Shipping Details to Track 1
12. ------o-------o---o-o

Gultskra Artikler is an experimental electronic music project started by Alexey Devyanin in 2003 in Novosibirsk (later relocated to Moscow). It was highly praised by many revievers, yet I haven't listened to any GA albums until recently. "Industria" has an insteresting concept, and after reading the release notes I expected it to be similar to early 80s' percussion industrial mixed with IDM in the vein of Rad Machine:

"Neo-folk cyber-psychedelia. Gultskra's music is always the unique mixture of brutal and honest vibes of mysterious Siberian soul and hi-tech technologies, some unpredictable electro-acoustical and avant-garde instrumental movements and precision electronical manipulations, strange field recordings..."

"For this album, before making it, I spent few times in some empty factory not far from Moscow. just to get the feel of the machines left alone in darkness. i had a friend who worked there, allowed me to stay for a while after a work day is finished and everybody's went home. I recorded some of the factory sounds, empty echoes, but mainly I just got the right atmosphere and mood to make these tracks later at home.

On few tracks I used contact microphones recording water drops interacting with metal in different ways, processing the signal of drops through effects i got some crazy results! the way real life (as water) interacts with metal, mechanic structure made by people, makes great contrast between so different substances, i try to reflect that in my music. contrast is one of the main themes. that's why I had to use some melodies, ambiences, Soviet synths.

I found some new techniques of sound processing to represent the rhythmic structures as some primal music beats, played by machines. as if machines were exploring percussions played by primitive humans and trying to imitate it. imagine a ritual in a factory where machines dance in a circle playing simple but meditative beat structures. this is so unreal" - Alexey Devyanin

While I coudn't hear any neofolk on "Industria" (maybe the earlier albums had more of it), it turned out to be a definitely interesting (albeit a bit short:) sound collage: