Zenial "Reworked" Vivo 008CD 2003 (62:46)
Van Helsing Froz - Kasper T. Toeplitz &
Zenial (5:40)
Zenial's Theme Remix - Maciek Szymczuk & Zenial (2:56)
Echoes from Lamberton - Kazuyuki K. Null (5:53)
Cyclosynapsa - Andrew Lagowski (5:13)
Aktyb7ff - Andrew Lagowski (5:30)
Ib7: Ludojad - Andrew Duke & Zenial (4:32)
Palsecam Theme (recycled) - Vidna Obmana (3:53)
Ilustracja#1 / E-nimalic - Amir Baghiri (9:44)
Sanok 13 - Zenial (2:06)
Zenzo - Zenial (3:57)
Angst - Jason Wietlespach & Jon Mueller & Zenial (2:40)
Hippi - Zenial (4:53)
Hamlet - Tetsuo Furudate (5:25)
Sunset - Zbigniew Karkowski (:24)
Lukasz Andrzej Szalankiewicz is a Polish digital sound designer and multimedia collaborator who has worked since 1994 under the name Zenial and, later, also as Palsecam. Continuing the tradition begun with last year's (highly recommended) "Reworked" for Black Faction, a collection of artists from around the world have at the original material. Interestingly enough for me, I've never heard any of Zenial's music beyond a few remixes on Vivo's "Nowe:le" compilation. Here the tracks run the gamut from minimalism to noise. The first few, collaborations with Kasper T. Toeplitz and Maciek Szymczuk, are subtle enough - full of digital crickets, restrained noise and melodies, glitch rhythms and steady electronic hum. Then KK. Null rudely awakens anyone who might have been lulled to sleep with an unforgiving swathe of noise. Andrew Lagowski's first track offers more blips, smears and bass but the second (as well as the following Andrew Duke & Zenial track) moves into subliminal ambient territory. Vidna Obmana wraps windy textures around a repetitive bass/rhythm line while Amir Baghiri's near ten minutes gradually becomes one of his own "Yalda" tracks replete with tribal drumming and seething washes. Two of Zenial's tracks (three are credited solely to him) are relatively tame, crackling and cooing tiny rhythmic melodies and murmurs while the other juxtaposes truncated Hip-Hop samples with electronic abstractions. Jason Wietlespach & Jon Mueller (both of the Crouton Music collective) add saxophone and found sound sort of percussion to the electronic sputtering while Tetsuo Furudate plays with deep gong-like tones. None of the individual tracks strike me as particularly exceptional, but the variety makes the whole a fine listen. Vivo are a label to watch from here on out ...
Where did I get this cd? - promo via Vivo.