Sloow Tapes / Belgium / 2023 / CS 44
Gintas K, once part of the first Lithuanian industrial band Modus but since over two decades he dedicates himself to electronic music, more specific granular synths and live electronics where he takes fractions of notes and moulds the sounds through speeding/slowing down and other obscure alchemical processes into new abstract configurations of space debris with remnants of drones, hums and bleeps. Edition of 70 copies.
Vital Weekly number 1377
Gintas K has been on these pages a lot of times. I must admit that, despite not knowing Sloow Tapes all too well, I am a bit surprised to see his work. I always think of him as a serious operator of laptop music, which seems not to be the home at Sloow Tapes. He creates ten pieces of music using his computer, midi keyboard and controller, but as this is a cassette (the label has no Bandcamp), I found it hard to tell where a track starts and stops. This cassette could very well contain one track per side. Oddly, perhaps, there is also an element of free play in Gintas K's music. Other than what I think is his stricter approach to composing, these pieces arrive in a free-flowing modus. Sounds drop in, quite uneventful, but are just 'there' and change in form, may grow, or reduce or simply, as unexpectedly disappear again. Yet there is never silence because there are many sounds, each fighting for our attention. It never becomes chaotic, as Gintas K manages to control the proceedings, which he does quite well. A certain psychedelic, ambient quality is part of this music, and I can see why Sloow Tapes found this to be an interesting addition to their catalogue. (FdW)