Brzmi w Trzcinie #2: Hermeneia & Zaumne, Tomasz Bednarczyk, Szymon Wildstein, Coals, and more

A look back at late and overlooked 2023 albums and songs, plus one January release

Welcome to 2024 at Brzmi w Trzcinie. Before we dig into regular coverage of new releases, we’re devoting our second newsletter to a few albums and songs that either came out at the very end of last year, or that we simply didn’t get a chance to properly celebrate in our opening round-up.

Hermeneia & Zaumne, “In the Soil” (do you have peace?)

It wasn’t too long after the release of Zaumne’s gauzy ambient tapestry Parfum–one of our absolute favorite albums of 2023–that we got to hear new music from the Poznań-based sound artist. “In the Soil,” his collaboration with DJ and vocalist Hermeneia, dropped in mid-December as part of the Always + Forever compilation from do you have peace?, a label run by Amor Childs of Bristol’s Young Echo collective and one third of the experimental pop project Jabu. This atmospheric downtempo track sees Hermeneia channeling a spectral vocal performance that seesaws between drowsy and operatic, set against reverb-drenched percussion and ice-cold gusts of synth. There is undeniable catchiness to this mix, and the resulting signifiers run the gamut from modern chamber pop to trip-hop to Kelela’s early-tens singles with Kingdom and Bok Bok, making me wish that “dream-dub” was a common shorthand one could throw around to describe music. “In the Soil” excels as a standalone single, a highlight of an eclectic compilation, and a possible entry point into a vibrant, unique scene.—Patryk Mrozek

Tomasz Bednarczyk, July / August (Somewhere Nowhere)

Now here's some consistency AND range. Mentioning the fifth volume in the Secret Ambient Friends Gig series is just scratching the surface of Tomasz Bednarczyk's 2023 output. His last year's releases also include two other ambient albums under his own name—Catbient, a collection of warm and charming miniatures, and stately, pensive After Midnight—as well as Lost Beats under his alias New Rome: a more beat-driven affair, as you might have guessed. All of them are definitely worth your attention, but the two 20-minute tracks here seem particularly impressive. The pieces fade in slowly and rise elegantly, with the chords stretched seemingly into infinity; the music fills out the room, always engaging when you pay attention, always comfortable when your mind wanders. The tracks are named after the summer months of July and August, but the record sounds just as good now in the winter, its semi-abstract floating just as easily suggesting sunny shimmer as glacial drift.—Łukasz Konatowicz

Szymon Wildstein, TSSSS (enjoy life)

A sort of concept album about a day in the life (or maybe its entirety?) of a protagonist named Ihsus, TSSSS treats academia music to a very modern, hyperpop approach: “serious” music made in an “unserious” way. There is an astonishing number of melodic threads and textural themes weaved through the album, from those entirely organic (voice, saxophone, piano), through their synthesized versions (both realistically sounding and purposely chintzy), to things that simply sound like nothing else out there. Just in the first half of the album, Wildstein cycles through ‘70s-style analog synth music, touches of ambient and EBM, purely acoustic minimalism, and a full-on music concrète collage, only to top it all off with a Ninja Tune-esque jazzy modern classical epic “Byłem Zaskoczony pasją [...].” Clocking in at around an hour, TSSSS could easily sustain the development of long, winding compositions typical of the aesthetics it blends; and yet, the musical motifs here are bursting at the seams, entering the picture just to be gone in a matter of seconds, often replaced by sounds from the opposite end of its extensive palette (including samples of oinking swine). Szymon Wildstein made a beautiful mess, or rather made a mess out of something beautiful (in a good way).—Patryk Mrozek

Coals, “Dzwony” (PIAS, 2023)

Few people in Poland do “dreamy” as well as Coals, and their latest track is as good a proof of that as any–while not really sounding like anything they've done before. In the last couple of years the duo have mastered a very specific kind of languid, hazy, mutated electronic pop that makes that seem to be the reason for all their collaborations with cloud rappers. “Dzwony” forgoes this type of sound. It's a crispy, crunchy guitar pop track with Kacha Kowalczyk's most vulnerable vocals yet, which take the center stage here as she sings about her school days (unsurprisingly they don't sound like a very good time). Actually, the opening line, “The morning chill hits my face,” sums up the song's mood and sound perfectly. This is Coals leaving the not-entirely-wholesome party they seemed to be at since at least 2019, getting out of the haze and facing the morning sun. The result might be their most conventionally pretty piece of dream pop to date. That's not a bad thing; I told you they do “dreamy” extremely well.—Łukasz Konatowicz

an-hoer, sepr.online.works (kolokpo records)

This ambitious album is a trip. Gdańsk’s an-hoer deal in ambient drones, meandering electro-acoustic compositions, autotuned folk-rock and spoken word in a way that recalls the Fourth World tradition of OBUH records: a cult Polish label that united post-industrial music and ethnocore on seminal albums by such acts as Księżyc, Atman, Za Siódmą Górą, and Karpaty Magiczne. sepr.online.works has a serious-mindedness to it that stops just short of affectation. Lyrically and in its titles, the album references ancient schools of philosophy, bygone civilizations, and Eastern religious traditions, though it thankfully avoids the appropriation of musical styles most commonly associated with them. What it offers instead is a rather original take on genreless experimentation that only sporadically hints at the problematic “World Music” territory. At their best, like in the 10-minute-long live drone centerpiece “Epikurska Jaźń” and minimalist “Jego Bizantyjskość,” an-hoer make music that’s equally challenging and rewarding while resisting to be pigeonholed.—Patryk Mrozek

Wiktor Stribog, Astroenergoterapia Psychosonoryczna (Superkasety Records)

Wiktor Stribog's place in the Polish hauntology hall of fame has been secured for many years now, specifically since he created the fascinatingly weird YouTube channel Kraina Grzybów TV. That particular moment—an inexplicable transmission from the disturbing alternate 1980s (or was it the 1990s?)—has been unrepeateable, but that won't stop Stribog from delighting in small acts of delicious charlatanry. Astroenergoterapia Psychosonoryczna (“psychosonoric astroenergetis,” I guess?) is a throwback to Russian and Polish “distance healing” TV broadcasts of the early ‘90s, soundtracked with a type of deliberately damaged, minimal synthesizer music to help you with your health, learning, trauma, love, and money. As such, the music recalls previous artifacts of the fake new age—think Science of the Sea by Jürgen Müller—or the records by actual synth mavericks like Laurie Spiegel or Roedelius (if he was recording in his bedroom). However, Stribog's domain is the uncanny, and there's plenty of that here as Astroenergoterapia Psychosonoryczna spikes the emotional uplift and soothing melodies with grimy sound artifacts and an overall aura of dinginess. A perfect little record for that time when you're chilling in a dungeon.—Łukasz Konatowicz