RECENZJE / REVIEWS
 

Fly Music             The Magic Carpathians & Zygmunt Staniak : Water / Dreams (2002)***°
This is already the 7th release of The Magic Carpathians so far, and it surely is the most convincing. At a certain point Atman ceased to exist. The magic of trees and forest rituals, the raga drenched acid trance psych folk was left behind, to look for other ways of expression. From the point of view of my humble opinion, it took until this release to find a full matured new sound and expression. Still expressing with their "Carpathian" roots -founded in nature, natural sounds and moods- this music became their personalized ritual with acoustic improvisation as one of the fundaments. The voice, singing and mixing of Anna Nacher's voice matured as well, starting from mystic talk, she also often sings with a more full expression / with animal like environmental sounds, as within Dead Can Dance like areas of singing, until soft ethnic screams. The ritual smoothness created in the music became a strong pleasant expression providing a perfect listening pleasure. The first two tracks, cover styles (without belonging to them) of ethnic trance and ritual music (-recorded live-), with modern sounds (-programming-), and with even some  psychedelic (effects), dance (rhythmic paterns). Track 3, "So Transparant" and 4, "Triple Portrait" are a bit a combination of free jazz elements through use of a jazzy bass and sax in a ethno ritual perspective. Track 5, "A story part III", has in a minimal way (with Indian percussion, zither, electric bass, voice) an ethnotrance psychedelic effect. Track 6,"Response" is a very filmic track with lots of field recordings, perfectly mixed with musical instruments improvisations and with a violin connecting the complete score, was made with Cerberus Shoal, a group which I remember for its interesting experimental mostly acoustic work "Crash my moon yacht" (Pand.rec.,1999)****°. This track precedes a forthcoming album on Northeast Indie Records of a cooperation between both groups. Last track, "Continuum", like "A story..", is minimal Indian ethnotrance, somewhat hypnotic in its effect. The CD is in fact a cooperation with an artist called Zygmunt Stenwak, a photographer who made "painted" photostudiowork pictures. A small booklet with nice and colourful abstract pictures is included.
http://psychedelicfolk.homestead.com/MC.html

 
Anna Nacher, Vocal Goddess of Poland Von >>The Wire<< schon gefeatured wurde das Magic Carpathians Project (MCP) aus Nowy Sacz. Auf >>Ethnocore 3: Vak<< (Fly Music/www.vivo.pl) beunruhigt Anna Nacher mit langgezogenen Leidensvocals. Bassgitarren schleichen drohend langsam und selbst diesmal spärlich verwendete Ethnoinstrumente wie eine Karpatenharmonica züngeln wie gefährliche Giftschlangen. Kalte Schauer rinnen über den Buckel, als ob Lydia Lunch und Diamanda Galas gleichzeitig losgelassen wären. Anna Nacher hat sich von indischen Frauenritualen inspirieren lassen - Vak ist eine Hindugöttin, die Musik verkörpert - und muss ob dieser aufwühlenden, bluestriefenden Platte zu Frau mit der ausdrucksstärksten Stimme des Jahres 2002 verklärt werden. Abgrundtief magic! Alfred Pranzl Skug, Journal für Musik, 53/02, Dezember 02 - Februar 03
 
 
The Magic Carpathians Project: Ethnocore 3 Fly Music No Number CD    This third instalment in Polish group The Magic Carpathians' Ethnocore series sees their sound stripped down even further to mostly acoustic fretless bass and vocals. The Resulting freed up space only serves to heighten the music's ritualistic overtones, with vocalist Anne Nacher sounding particularly inspired. The combination of incessant bass looping and ghost warbling on "Hard Time" sounds most like some of Nurse With Wound's rhytmic outings circa Yagga Blues, although its length, clocking in at more than eight minutes, works against it, as it fails to really accumulate any momentum over the full distance. Nacher's vocals might recall Diamanda Galas, albeit without Galas's dexterity or range, but she's still highly effective within her own parameters, exploding from the silence in red-faced spit. "Dark" is the most interesting track with Nacher splitting phonetics over a signalling trumpet that parts the darkness with little pointillist spurts.
The Wire, Issue 222, August 2002 
 

THE MAGIC CARPATHIANS/SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE/
VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
TRIGHPLANE TERRAFORMS VOLUME ONE
Three divergent groups share the same airspace on this
neatly packaged CD. Poland's Magic Carpathians are
still exploring the huge empty spaces that opened up
on their last Ethnocore release, with Anna Nacher's
vocals touching on Bjork as she prowls around Tomasz
Radizuk's obsessive bass patterns, rhyming 'fish' with
'wish' for the first time I can remember since Eric B
& Rakim's 'Paid in Full'. Their second track, 'Uluru',
adds some curving spurts of ethnic horn, splashing the
backdrop with silver. San Francisco's Six Organs Of
Admittance are as dazzling as ever, pulling an organ
and hand percussion freakout from some modal,
helter-skelter guitar on 'Warm Earth, Which I've Been
Told'. Ben Chasny's hypnotic vocal is enough to lull
you to sleep, undercut with a quivering blue drone
every bit as beautiful as Marc Bolan's. The UK's
Vibracathedral Orchestra are rapidly becoming a great
singles group, the shorter format being a perfect
vehicle for their urgent blasts of free dancing sound.
Here they condense various working strategies into
five focused tracks, most of them fading in like
bullet trains to the accompaniment of showers of
percussion, repetitive electronics and the gull cries
of variously bowed instruments
THE WIRE 01/03
 
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Trighplane Terraforms
Mental Telemetry CD
By Mats Gustafsson

When a magazine, or fanzine for that matter, has existed for a few years
it's unavoidable that you can assume certain releases will probably get
glowing reviews. This has rarely anything to do with laziness or unwillingness to
question the things that've previously been championed but rather the
expression of the fact that some bands are so close to the magazine's core
soul that they can't really go wrong. I feel that with all the three
artists that contribute with tracks to Trighplane Terraforms, so you have probably figured out where I'm going here, but there's still plenty to report beyond the praise. Firstly, my sincere kudos to Mental Telemetry for undergoing
the task of gathering (hold your breath now!) Magic Carpathians, Six Organs of
Admittance and Vibracathedral Orchestra on the same disc. But what's more
important than beautiful and acclaimed artist names is that all involved
presents glorious sonic amalgams, which in terms of aural quality rivals
without exception their most recent releases. If you take a quick glance at
my top list of 2002 you'll get a good idea of what sort of compliment that
is. Magic Carpathians delivers hair-raising psychedelic folk music, which
is as much about drones and aural craziness as it's about presenting songs
carved out of the Polish mountains. Six Organs of Admittance needs no
introduction, but how can one possibly shut up after hearing Ben Chasny's
18-minute hypnotic folk/drone opus "Warm Earth, Which I've Been Told"? I
certainly can't; it weaves my own invisible cloak to protect me from the
real-life that's just is too much to handle sometimes. The remaining five
tracks comes from Leeds' finest drone ensemble, Vibracathedral Orchestra,
which continues their dabbling with gravity and shapes blissful ceremonies
of drone rock and string clatter. And is if you needed any more reason to
get out and grab this disc it's mastered perfectly by Steven Wray Lobdell
and comes packaged in simple, but effective letter-pressed sleeves. I
realize that I am overwhelmingly ecstatic about this but the fact remains,
Trighplane Terraforms No.1 is indispensable, obligatory and essential
listening for everyone that's reading this rag.
THE BROKEN FACE #15:
 
Projekt Karpaty Magiczne * Zygmunt Stenwak - Water Dreams (Fly Music)
"Water Dreams" to album będący w pewnym sensie zapisem atmosfery wystawy nowojorskiego fotografa polskiego pochodzenia, Zygmunta Stenwaka. Powstała w otoczeniu prac artysty i zapewne w dużej mierze inspirowana nimi muzyka, przynosi zupełnie inne oblicze Karpat Magicznych, niż to, które poznaliśmy choćby na kolejnych częściach "Ethnocore". Przede wszystkim są to dźwięki o znacznie bardziej swobodnej, a zarazem zminimalizowanej formule. Płynnie poruszające się tematy, często oparte na wyraźnej linii basu i ledwie ozdabiane brzmieniami etnicznych instrumentów, są tu w sposób oczywisty podkładem dla wyjątkowo dobrze dysponowanej Anny Nacher. Jej wokalizy i recytacje odchodzą tym razem daleko od udramatyzowanych i nieco może przesadnie interpretowanych linii znanych choćby z wydanego w tym roku "VAK". Artystka bawi się dźwiękiem; raz niemal zlewając się z brzmieniem skrzypiec, innym razem eksponując bogatą technikę i skalę, zawsze jednak pozostając na pierwszym planie nagrań. Zresztą im bardziej głos Nacher intryguje i wciąga słuchacza, tym większą przyjemność sprawia odkrywanie kolejnych warstw podkładu; jest on tak wyciszony i zamglony, że potrzeba sporego wysiłku, by wyłowić z niego pojedyncze instrumenty. Owszem; skrzypce czy wspomniany bas wyrzynają się miejscami bardzo wyraźnie, ale tlące się niewyraźnie w tle perkusjonalia czy różnorodne dęte instrumenty etniczne, tworzą plątaninę tak zwartą, że brzmiącą niemal jak jednorodny, ambientowy podmuch. Zaledwie raz czy dwa na płytę instrumentaliści zapędzają się w improwizacjach, ocierając się lekko, ale efektownie o atmosferę etno jazzu. Muszę przyznać, że bez natrętnego rytualizmu i w formule improwizowanej Karpaty zrobiły na mnie duże wrażenie. Myślę, że większe niż "Ethocore 3: VAK". wow / nuta.pl
 
Projekt Karpaty Magiczne * Zygmunt Stenwak - Water Dreams (Fly Music)
www.rhplus.ceti.com.pl/pracownia/mk (site is in Polish)
After a trio of "ethnocore" releases (Ethnocore, Nytu, and Vak) which I've
not heard, Poland's Magic Carpathians Project (an outgrowth of Atman,
featuring multi-instrumentalists Anna Nacher and Marek Styczynski, bassist
Tomasz Radziuk, and percussionist Janek Kubek) return with their seventh
release, a collaborative effort with Polish-American photographer,
Stenwak. Those photographs (in an accompanying 24-page booklet) are an
integral part of the project (they were apparently positioned all over
Radio Gdansk Studio, such that they were all the participants saw during
the recording session), making the whole release similar in concept to
Stars of the Lid's collaboration with painter, Jon McCafferty (Per Aspera
Ad Astra) from a few years back. However, that's where the comparisons
end, for no one could possibly confuse the Texas duo's speaker hum with
these Polish hippies' spiritually pastoral music, another fine entry in
the burgeoning wyrdfolk movement, surely 2002s best kept musical secret.
The opening track, "Something you can hide in," features a shamanistic
vocal performance from Anna that borders on spiritual possession. [It's no
surprise that the topic of her workshop at the Network East-West
conference on Women, Spirituality, and Yoga this past June focused on
"Reclaiming Your Voice." The band also performed "Ancient Music from the
Carpathian Mountains" during one of the evening programmes.] The tribal,
percussive backing, occasionally accompanied by Marek's soft woodwind
embellishments (on the Slovakian pastoral fujara), drags us into the holy
sweat tent, where Anna's hypnotic chanting - sometimes in English, more
often not - summons ancient deities of indeterminate origin.  Haunting,
elegiac, and eerily beautiful.
The rhythmic chock-a-blocks continue on "Distance" which makes effective
use of the fujara to continue the disk's hypnotic atmosphere. The
syncopated interplay between this pastoral woodwind instrument and Anna's
Ono-like caterwailing makes this track remind me of a Kabuki theatre
piece. Ultimately, a spooky Punch and Judy show, not for the squeamish or
young at heart.
"So Transparent" IS a fairytale...and a fractured one at that, as perhaps
told by Nina Hagen, the vocalist whose range and unique delivery Nacher
has most often been compared to.
Avant jazz skronk is the order of the day on "Triple Portrait,"
predominently sax and bass feeding off each other that will no doubt
appeal to fans of 'Trane's acid period. Over Styczynski and Radziuk's
freeform jamming, Anna does some free associating of her own in a tongue
I'm not familiar with.
I do know, however, that Polish is the loving tongue in which Anna relates
"A Story part III." Now I'll be the first to admit that Polish is not
exactly the most romantic sounding language, yet my English speaking brain
still tries to unscramble the words and strangely draws me in to the song
rather than automatically shutting down. Truly an example of the
international language of music: despite not understanding the lyrics of
the story that Anna is reltating, I'm curiously drawn in to the interplay
between her voice and the assortment of Tibetan liturgical instruments
hammered dulcimer, tabla, tampura, djembe, doof, khol, and assorted
hydjaks, gopishands, and rattles that make up the background music.
[Most of these are on display in Marek's home, Galaria Stary Dom (the Old
House Gallery) in Nowy Sacz, where he is a fourth generation inhabitant of
the 150 year old house. It is here that Marek holds interactive musical
workshops (such as "The Talking Meadow Workshop"), which demonstrate the
usage of the many ethnic instruments he also employs on Carpathian
releases, with a special eye (and ear) towards their relationship with the
surrounding environment. The promotion of "ecological culture" is also the
focus of the Stary Dom Association of Art and Education, founded in 1999
and presided over by its president, one Anna Nacher. For more info, visit
www.starydom.art.pl/01glownaangielska.htm.]
Finally, a special mention of "Continuum" is warranted to call attention
to guest Patrycja Kujawska's sometimes manic, gypsy-like violin playing,
which manages the mean feat of borrowing several bars from the repetitive,
staccato riff of Steven Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians," and deploying
them in subtle nuances that recall the best of Godspeed You Black Emperor.
Toss Anna's vocal exorcisms that range from a mantric "Om" to a Hindu call
to prayer over the top and you've got a heady cauldron of unbridled
estrogen just waiting to burst over your eardrums and down your spine.
There's a long line of female vocalists that employ their voices as an
additional instrument in shaping their band's sound - from as far back as
Yoko, through Liz (Cocteau Twins) Fraser and Lisa (Dead Can Dance)
Gerrard, and on up to the current work of Christina (Charalambides)
Carter, so Anna has a long heritage from which to draw inspiration. It is
also that lengthy tradition that lends itself to a scholarly discussion of
voice-as-instrument, and with Water Dreams, that discussion can no longer
take place without acknowledging the importance of Anna Nacher to the
vocal form and, in turn, it's importance to shaping the sound of The Magic
Carpathians Project.
(Jeff Penczak, The Vinyl Junkie,
www.goes.com/~leapday)

Projekt Karpaty Magiczne * Zygmunt Stenwak - Water Dreams (Fly Music
Magic Carpathians/ Six Organs of Admittance/ Vibracathedral Orchestra
Trighplane Terraforms  No. 1 (Mental Telemetry)  This three way split
compilation presents three of our favorite bands in a lovely letterpress
sleeve. First Polish band The Magic Carpathians do the more songlike of
their two contributions; Fish/Wish, which feels like an eerie hypnotic
dark lullaby; and then the expansive droning atmospheric improvisation
that expels demons over a long lonely plain called Uluru. Six Organs of
Admittance deliver the nearly eighteen minute Warm Earth, Which I’ve
Been Told. Time stretches out, Ben Chasney sing/chants the words,
sounding swept up in the trance, after about five minutes he stops
singing and antiquated keyboards cast long shadows as they pulse. Slow
gongs, and fractured guitar spread out the landscape till the last four
minutes when Ben’s multitracked vocals return to recall Popol Vuh
playing a folk song reprise of the beginning. The remaining five tracks,
and eighteen minutes is given over to the creative racket of the UK’s
Vibracathedral Orchestra, which is like passing through several
different regions of psychic weather.
George Parsons
Dream Magazine #3
http://www.dreamgeo.com
 
MAGIC CARPATHIANS PROJECT Ethnocore 3: Vak (Tamizdat) cd 14.98
Ecological and feminist-minded avant-hippie Polish ethno-drone-folk-rock outfit
the Magic Carpathians are back with, I think, their fifth album. We've been fans
of these Terrastock-style sonic explorers since their days as Atman, and even
had 'em play in in-store here at Aquarius a year or two ago, which was very
cool. This new disc is more of their experimental Eastern European psychedelic
"rock" music: dark and primal, with lots of repetition and drone. The
Carpathians really mix things up as usual bringing in jazz bass, cello, gongs,
squeaking baby toys, acoustic guitar, signalling trumpet, and more. And it's
quite an international production, with portions recorded live in Varanasi
India, others in galleries in Poland, with some remixes done here in California
by the rhBand.
All songs of course feature the voice of Anna Nacher, who really gets wild on
some of this, giving this a bit of a Bjork-gone-bonkers-gone-Balkan
flavor...indeed her dramatic 20th century classical style shrieking sometimes
sounds like someone from a Luigi Nono composition -- or even Keiji Haino!!
Haunting stuff, even when she sounds like the Knights Who Say Ni on the track
"/dark/". But she can be mellow and melodic as well. Still, this disc might be
the creepiest and most 'difficult' of the Carpathian's albums yet.

[ aquarius records new arrivals list #142 ]
Aquarius Records www.aquariusrecords.org
1055 Valencia Street
San Fancisco USA
 

Othermusic
MAGIC CARPATHIANS "Ethnocore 3" (Fly Music)
RealAudio: http://64.27.65.90:8080/ramgen/othermusic/nestcepa.rm
RealAudio: http://64.27.65.90:8080/ramgen/othermusic/atm.rm
I once attended a memorial which featured three women creating
sounds that turned the small schoolroom we were in into a
cathedral, complete with a chorus of weeping banshees and all
without musical accompaniment. (Think the three fates around the
cauldron.) I had actually forgotten about this experience until I
heard this record. It immediately filled me with a sense of both
reverence and mourning; however, it could very well be cries of
joy. I can't decide but they are definitely coming from the deep
inner recess of personal expression. Scott described the first
song as "the lost breakdown from 'White Rabbit'." That makes sense
actually, because it is like wandering on a path in the dark woods.
Your torch light, a murky bass line that takes you past strange
creatures made from cymbals and harmonicas, with strings for legs
and trumpet beaks -- kind of like the Disney Alice in Wonderland
except, (ahem), darker. I played it in the store and immediately our
surroundings did not make sense. People browsing through CDs
seemed way too prosaic for the soundtrack. I urge you, especially
fans of these "electro-acoustic drone" masters to pick it up. [NL]
 
Nuta.pl [ www.nuta.pl]
Karpaty Magiczne-Ethnocore 3:VAK
Gdyby Karpaty Magiczne poruszały się dalej torem wyznaczanym przez kolejne części "Ethnocore", na następnych płytach pozostałby z tej muzyki wyłącznie obdarty z wszelkich ozdobników i nawiązań do współczesności, jej sakralny, rytualny środek. Karpaty zawsze starały się chwytać "ducha miejsc" i na zasadzie analogii odnajdywać wspólną płaszczyznę wszystkich kultur świata, a ta, o czym nie trzeba chyba nikogo przekonywać, tkwi właśnie w elementach sakralnych tychże kultur. Jeżeli jednak dotąd muzyka Marka Styczyńskiego i Anny Nacher poruszała się jednak wśród powszechnie rozpoznawalnych nurtów: rocka, psychodelii, ambientu czy cytatów z muzyki etnicznej Bałkanów, Indii i wschodniej Słowiańszczyzny, o tyle na "Ethnocore 3" unika jakichkolwiek kontaktów z rzeczywistością XXI wieku. Słyszymy tu misternie utkaną i niezwykle jak na Karpaty mroczną, plątaninę brzmień fujary pasterskiej, didjeridu, wiolonczeli i drobnych perkusjonaliów, ponad którą rozbrzmiewają odważne i przejmujące wokalizy Anny Nacher. Jeżeli jednak muzyczne tło sprawia wrażenie intuicyjnej improwizacji, o tyle w warstwie wokalnej razi nieco jej udramatyzowanie. Z drugiej jednak strony archaiczne rytuały, do których Nacher nawiązuje, były przecież także jakąś formą dramatyzacji...
wow
 
Antena Krzyku - 1/2002
Karpaty Magiczne-Ethnocore 3:VAK
Pierwsza częsć cyklu Ethnocore ciążyła ku rockowi, druga, i najlepsza, w stronę orientu i psychodelii. Trzecia to wyciąg z koncertów duetu i jego przyjaciół. Początek płyty wyznacza leniwy pochód akustycznego basu i wiodące mroczne, mantrowo-bluesowe wokale Anny Nacher. Osiągają one temperaturę, która przypominać może o bluesowych interpretacjach Diamandy Galas. Ale głos nie ten. Ciekawiej wypadają okreslające klimat dalszej częsci archaiczne"otwierające" szamańskie zaspiewy. Najlepiej dzieje się w tle, z którego pobrzmiewają dźwięki "małych instrumentów" - zabawek, harmonijki, cymbałów i gongów. Marek Styczyński nawiązuje do szkoły Art Ensemble Of Chicago i ten etno-improwizatorski wątek cenię w Karpatach najbardziej. Oferuje on niesłychany koloryt, któremu równie blisko do korzennych zewów, co współczesnej awangardy. Mimo iż w finale muzyka łagodnieje, brzmi niczym etniczny dark ambient, który przypomina o onirycznych rytuałach ery indystrialu. W sumie, kameralny, ale buzujący masą emocji misteryjny spektakl o wyjątkowo chropawej i mrocznej, jak na zespół atmosferze.
Rafał Księżyk
 
Dream Magazine #3
The Magic Carpathians "Ethnocore 3 Vak" (FLY Music, Dist: Vivo
www.vivo.pl.)
>Anna Nacher and Marek Styczynski of Poland have perhaps delivered their
finest recorded work with this collection of ten explorations of their genetic and
spiritual identities. They are joined by other longtime band members and guests on a few tracks, though sometimes it's just Anna and her voice alone that does all the work. The instrumentation is ancient and modern, though it seems the sound of The Magic Carpathians is growing progressively independent of their folk roots and becoming it's own hybrid of improv, jazz, art music, opera, Brigitte Fontaine, free noise, Stockhausen, Sun Ra, Sun City Girls at their most wigged, sacred devotional music of several continents and more, all filtered through the singular visions and vision of these open channels for spirit and spirits. This may be their least instrumentally exotic; bass, cello, and even guitar are audible, but this goes further, wider and wilder than they've ever gone on record before; Anna shrieks like she's expelling angry demons in places, or sounds like she's passionately sleepwalking through this magical rite and right of passage. Recorded live in India and Poland, this is thrilling, dreamy, scary, supernatural, spellbinding and essential.
George Parsons

http://www.dreamgeo.com