Review Summary: Intriguing Polish exploration of nature and technology with a mix of psychadelic, ambient and electronic
Stara Rzeka, meaning “old river”, is a small village in the heartland of the Polish woodlands. There is not much about the village on the internet, but with only 257 inhabitants and its placement within the remote national park Bory Tucholskie, I imagine it’s one of the more isolated places in Europe. Places like that often are an odd combination of raw nature and human influence that coexist, while still holding their own autonomy. Jakub 'Kuba' Ziołek, the man behind the Stara Rzeka music project, spends every summer in this village to escape city life for a while and this connection of nature and technology has been the main inspiration behind the Stara Rzeka project.
Cień chmury nad ukrytym polem is a study of the complicated relationship between nature and humans; there is a combination of primal ruralness and decadent modern technology on display here. This is represented with a sound pallet where both acoustic and mechanical sounds find their home. The opener ‘Przebudzenie boga wschodu’, for instance, opens this album with beautiful, peaceful acoustic guitar, only to delve more and more into an anxious blend of hypnotic electronic passages and noisy ambient textures. Every track on the album tells a story like that. If the opener was a slow transformation, then the follow up track ‘Tej nocy/Broń nas od złego’ starts out as a destruction of anything peaceful, with its forceful black metal inspired blast beats and shrieks that eventually mellows out to an acoustic guitar arrangement. In a way, it is an oppositional track to ‘Przebudzenie boga wschodu’, whereas the opener saw a degradation of the acoustic peace, this time it is the acoustic guitar that restores the balance at the end.
Balance is key in
Cień chmury nad ukrytym polem. Ziołek has a diverse musical background and it shows on his debut; it’s a mash of various styles – including folk, ambient and psychedelic influences. For Stara Rzeka, he was particularly inspired by the German krautrock movement where he displays the same affinity for electronic ambient experimentations with psychedelic textures that get mixed in with the Slavic folk elements and alienating drone soundscapes.
Cień chmury nad ukrytym polem is as a result of all these inspirations a varied album wherein each track offers a new idea. The title track is an example of a more ambient approach that stays engaging throughout its 12 minutes due to its many movements and intriguing psychedelic soundscaping. ‘Nächtlich Spaziergang durch Klinger’, on the other hand, showcases the most electronic approach on the album with its pulsating beats and hypnotic melodies.
However, despite Ziołek’s openness about the theme on bandcamp and interviews,
Cień chmury nad ukrytym polem does not seem to give any answers on what it represents. Anything from a thematic standpoint remains highly open to interpretation on a track-by-track basis. What’s constant is a mysterious atmosphere that Stara Rzeka stands in, one that feels complete, but yet is difficult to fully understand. Regardless, it is an incredibly exciting soundscape to explore and absorb.
Cień chmury nad ukrytym polem won’t get everyone’s blood bumping, but it has a lot to give for anyone who is willing to dig in.
