staszek fungus - frequencies on the fifth floor (2022)

Michał Lejczak creates his music as Staszek Fungus and he has recently released his first album at the Opus Elefantum label. After showing two long plays last year, frequencies on the fifth floor has better chance to get better visible in the drone/ambient world.

His style involves tons of subtle drones that together create vast and still soundscapes around the listener. There's no pace whatsoever, just the music that absorbs you and lets you slide into this kind of meditative state that is so valuable at times. It's quiet but it's always there, subtle but very tangible. And when there's finally something showing up in 2.2, like a gloomy and sombre structure on the horizon, it makes a real impact on the audience. 

frequencies on the fifth floor costs 4 EUR (16 PLN).

Check: 2.2

Country: Poland

Genre: drone soundscape

Label: Opus Elefantum

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Janusz Jurga - IST (2021)

Janusz Jurga not only has released five albums under his own name, he is also a member of the Vysoké Čelo collective and a cofounder of the Opus Elefantum label, one of the best on Polish offstream music scene. His newest album is called IST and provides us with everything we love in his music since 2018 and his debut album Duchy Rogowca.

Jurga's deep electronica/dub/techno music is, as always, filled with "dark, dense and oneiric atmosphere", similar to what one can find in dark ambient and dark folk genres. This mysterious and a little bit unnerving ambiance is seamlessly combined with deep-bass electronica making me think of the Lithuanian Giriu Dvasios, who, just like Jurga does, also draws inspirations from folk music to a high degree. Just like on his best-known release Hypnowald, Jurga decorates the electronic passages with forest-originating field recordings and this is something that couldn't fit this music better. This makes the forest dance in a rather ominous way, dance around you and everyone who's lost within. Another thing is the spoken word vocals that appear in the opening and the finishing tracks, performed by Żebyr, the lyrics make the whole album even deeper and more mysterious. Especially the very last sentence of the release: "I guess it doesn't matter what place we ended up in, we're here".

IST costs 2.5 EUR (10 PLN).

Janusz Jurga - Hypnowald (2019) EN

Check: WALD

Country: Poland

Genre: dark folk dub

Label: Opus Elefantum

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Greenwald Lads Club - It Is Safe Now (2021)

Best known from being a vocalist of the post-punk/surf rock band Syndrom Paryski, Wojtek Filipowicz has just surprised his fans with a so-much-different solo album. The EP called It Is Safe Now shows a huge turn from the lively and positive rock'n'roll-like music of Syndrom... and focuses on dark and heavy ambient sounds that are only a thin wall from turning into drone metal-like madness.

The EP shows music born from the artist's pandemic time's explorations of "the atmospheric electronic music". This epic notes reflect the concept behind the album: a post-apocalyptic vision of the world without humans, with crumbling buildings and nature reclaiming the centres of the cities. When you take this under consideration, the album's title shows so much of the modern social anxiety and nihilism towards the humanity's fate. This is also very much tangible in the album's music, it's nervous and bleak atmosphere. 

The artist admits to inspirations from Boris' music and you can hear it well in the album's turns toward the airy, diluted black metal that stems from the synth and ambient backgrounds, blossoms for a while and comes back to the subtle noise of the rest of the album (as it is in the title track It Is Safe Now). However, most of the release is set in the noisier, synthier kind of ambient. There's some irregular beats but they die very quickly, there's some drums and melodies but, just like the human civilization, they seem to be bound to fall. Everything ends with a beautiful but also kind of scary soundscape.

It Is Safe Now costs 2.5 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: It Is Safe Now

Country: Poland

Genre: post-metal ambient

Label: Opus Elefantum

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Jocelyn Packard - Nothing Is Solid (2020)

With the name taken from David Lynch's mythos, the Polish Jocelyn Packard have a little choice but to create mysterious and dark music. The duo's second album is called Nothing Is Solid and contains an interesting blend of ambient and post-rock vibes. This release is already three months old but is so intriguing I can't go past it without posting something on my blog.

The album is said to be a musical type of a diary with the music corresponding to the artist's life experience and gradually "growing out of them". It is expressed with lazy noise poring over form the speakers for long minutes. This guitar ambient with traces of very slow, very climactic post-rock would perfectly fit Twin Peak's darker scenes of its unnerving mystery (Kate Song (Jet Fuel Perfume)!). BUT as it seems, the artists are not very fond of Twin Peaks-oriented similes when describing their music so perhaps let's stop here. Although the noisy psychedelia that in visual form defines Lynch's works, truly lives here in its audio persona. And, of course, there are references to other Lynch-like weird pieces of culture like James Joyce's infamous Finnegans Wake. 

Nothing Is Solid costs 2.5 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: Kate Song (Jet Fuel Perfume)

Country: Poland

Genre: noisy ambient

Label: Opus Elefantum

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Vysoké Čelo - Űrkutatás (2020) EN

For anyone who follows what the Opus Elefantum label does, Vysoké Čelo is nothing new. The artists, among whom there is also Janusz Jurga who appears on the blog from time to time, released already four albums and the fifth one joined in June. So let's listen to Űrkutatás.

The band's music makes a super rich mix. They draw something from ambient, something from folk, something from psychedelia, something from traditional rock (hey, II makes a really good song with the South States vibes), something from coldwave (hey, the second part of II makes a good song with wave vibes). And it's possible to go on listing those influences for a while, it's very difficult to close the band within any possible genre. And then, there's also a ton of different vocals, various moods - only in IV it ranges from sparky keys/glockenspiel and unnerving new age up to an airy finish.

Yeah, you can't get bored with the Poles.

Űrkutatás costs 2.5 EUR.

Janusz Jurga - Hypnowald (2019) EN

Check: II

Country: Poland

Genre: eclectic psychedelic folk
Label: Opus Elefantum

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Vysoké Čelo - Űrkutatás (2020) PL

Vysoké Čelo dla każdego, kto śledzi poczynania labelu Opus Elefantum, nie jest zespołem nowym. Artyści, wśród których jest też pojawiający się na moim blogu Janusz Jurga, mają na koncie już cztery albumy, a piąty dołączył do nich w czerwcu. Posłuchajmy więc Űrkutatás.

Muzyka zespołu to bardzo bogata mieszanka. Czerpią trochę z ambientu, trochę z folku, trochę z psychodelii, trochę z bardziej tradycyjnego rocka (ej, II to całkiem dobra kompozycja w stylu Południowych Stanów), trochę z zimnej fali (ej, druga część II to całkiem dobra kompozycja w wave'owym stylu). Na pewno można by tak wymieniać jeszcze długo, bardzo ciężko zamknąć styl zespołu w jakichkolwiek ramach. Do tego dochodzi tona różnych wokali, różnych nastrojów - w samym tylko IV od roziskrzonych klawiszy/dzwonków przez niepokojący new age po wręcz eteryczny finał. 

No, nie sposób się z Polakami nudzić.

Űrkutatás kosztuje 10 złotych (2.5 EUR).

Janusz Jurga - Hypnowald (2019) PL

Sprawdź: II

Kraj: Polska

Szufladka: eclectic psychedelic folk
Label: Opus Elefantum

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Lugshar - Muzyka naiwna (2020) PL

Lugshar to Mateusz Ciszczoń i jego ambientowy projekt dostarczony nam przez niezawodne Opus Elefantum. Jego Muzyka naiwna wcale taka naiwna nie jest, wręcz przeciwnie, utula fantastyczną warstwą ambientowego grania.

Album wypełniony jest bardzo powolną, statyczną i nastrojową elektroniczną subtelnością. Dźwięki Ciszczonia koją i tulą, a w swoim minimalizmie nawet na tle innych ambientów są niczym kołysanka pozwalająca spokojnie zasnąć. Pojawiająca się od czasu do czasu akustyczna gitara tylko to wrażenie potęguje. Nie jest niespodzianką, że szczyt tego usypiającego nastroju płyta osiąga w utworze... Kołysanka, w którym królują dzwonki. 

Ten ledwie słyszalny i kojący wszelkie dolegliwości duszy album jest zwieńczeniem siedmioletniej kariery artysty. Jak sam pisze, "Muzyka naiwna jest dla Lugshara tym, czym Selected Ambient Works było dla Aphex Twin. To dzieło kompletne – jest wybuchem materii, jej rozkwitem i unicestwieniem". Jeśli więc słuchać polskiego ambientu to w tym momencie przede wszystkim tego.

Muzyka naiwna kosztuje 10 złotych.

Sprawdź: Kołysanka

Kraj: Polska

Szufladka: night ambient
Label: Opus Elefantum

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Lugshar - Muzyka naiwna (2020) EN

Lugshar is Mateusz Ciszczoń and his ambient project delivered by the never-failing Opus Elefantum label. His Muzyka naiwna ("Naive Music") is not naive at all, quite the opposite, it nestles the listener with a fantastic layer of ambient sounds.

The album is filled with very slow, static and moody electronic subtleties. Ciszczoń's sounds hug and sooth and being so minimalist, even compared to other ambients, are like a lullaby making you fall asleep peacefully. Appearing from time to time acoustic guitar only strengthens this impression. It comes as no surprise that the drowsing atmosphere reaches the pinnacle in the song called Kołysanka (meaning... "Lullaby"), a track reigned by glockenspiel. 

This barely audible and soothing the soul's many pains album is crowning of the artist's 7 years career. As he describes it, "Muzyka naiwna is for Lugshar what Selected Ambient Works was for Aphex Twin. It's a compete work - it's the matter's explosion, its blooming and annihilation". So if you want to listen to Polish ambient, right now it's the album.

Muzyka naiwna costs 3 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: Kołysanka

Country: Poland

Genre: night ambient
Label: Opus Elefantum

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Ljos - A Foreword (2020) PL

Duet Ola Budzyńska - Patryk Banach, który przybrał sobie skandynawsko brzmiącą nazwę (ljós to po islandzku światło), to kolejny znakomity zespół ze stajni wytwórni Opus Elefantum. 

Płyta to w zasadzie zbiór wydanych w zeszłym roku EP-ek, nawet na Spotify figuruje jako playlista. I tak jak należało się spodziewać po nazwie, muzyka Ljos to ambitny, obudowany neoklasyką chamber pop z ewidentnie skandynawskim klimatem. Łagodne, nienarzucające się melodie, akompaniament na pianino i altówkę, subtelna ale dodajaca dodatkowego wymiaru i nowoczesnego sznytu elektronika (Frakkur!), to właśnie jej definicja.

Tak jak wszyscy, którzy inspirują swoją muzykę daleką północą, duet zdecydowanie stawia na atmosferę, tak potęgowaną ciepłym, delikatnym wokalem Budzyńskiej. 

A Foreword kosztuje 10 złotych.

Sprawdź: Frakkur

Kraj: Polska

Szufladka: neoclassical chamber pop
Label: Opus Elefantum

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Ljos - A Foreword (2020) EN

The Ola Budzyńska - Patryk Banach duo that embraced a Scandinavian-sounding name (in Icelandic ljós means light) make another great band from the Opus Elefantum label. 

The album is actually a collection of last year's EPs, even on Spotify it's labelled as playlist. And as could be expected from the name, Ljos' music is ambitious, neoclassicism-derived chamber pop with evident Scandinavian atmosphere. Delicate, non-overwhelming melodies and the accompaniment of piano and viola plus electronic sounds that are subtle but adding to the whole's multidimensionality and modern vibes  (Frakkur!), this is its definition. 

As everybody who is inspired by the Far Norths's music, the duo clearly puts the atmosphere first, one that is even greater thanks to Budzyńska's warm vocals.

A Foreword costs 2 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: Frakkur

Country: Poland

Genre: neoclassical chamber pop
Label: Opus Elefantum

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haptar - brave enough (2020) EN

Zelienople's new album is being released this spring, but the wait is more pleasant with the Warsaw-based project. As now Opus Elefantum label released Tomek Haptar's album that could as well be a part of Matt Christensen or Giles Corey's discography. Taka jest Brave Enough.

Just like on his more well-known colleagues' albums, in Haptar's music the most important is the oneiric-garage atmosphere. The whole thing, from vocals to music backgrounds is purposely made with lo-fi vibes that make the dreamy message extremely clear. While in some music projects this lower quality production usually turns me off, in the Pole's work it's pure pleasure. The message is clear - atmosphere is what counts, the rest is optional.

Also, similarly to Christensen, the vocals are tailored in such a way to sound like choirs, more depressive than angelic and for sure extremely dispersed and oneiric. Also in the title track brave enough, where there's no vocals, the climate is still the same - noise pop/rock with higher dose of ethereality. 

brave enough costs 2 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: stalker

Country: Poland

Genre: lo-fi dream rock
Label: Opus Elefantum 

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haptar - brave enough (2020) PL

Nowa płyta Zelienople wychodzi tej wiosny, ale czekanie na nią umila zespół z Warszawy. Bo oto Opus Elefantum wydało płytę Tomka Haptara, której nie powstydziłby się ani Matt Christensen ani Giles Corey. Taka jest Brave Enough.

Podobnie jak u jego bardziej uznanych kolegów, w muzyce Haptara najważniejsza jest oniryczno-garażowa atmosfera. Całość, od wokali po muzyczne tła zrobiona jest w celowo lo-fi'owych klimatach, które potęgują senny przekaz. O ile w części muzyki taka celowo obniżona jakość mnie odrzuca, tak u Polaka jest to sama przyjemność, wiadomość jest jedna - liczy się atmosfera, reszta jest opcjonalna. 

Podobnie również jak u Christensena wokale są tak robione by przypominały chóry - raczej depresyjne niż anielskie, a na pewno bardzo rozproszone i oniryczne. Także w tytułowym brave enough, gdzie wokali nie ma, klimat jest podobny - noise pop/rock o bardzo podwyższonym elemencie eteryczności.

brave enough kosztuje 10 złotych.

Sprawdź: stalker

Kraj: Polska

Szufladka: lo-fi dream rock
Label: Opus Elefantum 

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