Gravitsapa — Concert No.1 23/23
Gravitsapa hail from the battle-beaten soil of Ukraine. And in its seventeen years of existence, this duo has taken a decidedly varied sonic path. Initially, they engaged with Christian alternative rock, moving to the more experimental sound of math-rock, followed by post-metal and currently, to an experimental hybrid, leaning heavily to avant-garde and minimalism, with a pronounced ambient leaning.
Given the situation in their homeland, Concert No.1 23/23 is about the raging war. 23.02.2023 signifies one year and one day after the war escalated into its new phase. Obviously, their chamber recordings capture the mood and psyche of a battle-worn land and moreover, their war-worn souls.
The duo use fairly basic and unassuming sonic tools for the creation of this work- guitar, voice, bass, keyboards and percussion, to create the three pieces of minimalist and atmospheric experimental music that charges easily into free jazz and vice versa. A free form and a free from pre-requirements album, commencing quite smoothly but escalates with force.
While there’s no distortion per-se, the sound is in fact fully distorted, sentimentally and that kind of distortion comes from the overall rawness, the cyclothymic atmosphere which collides with cry outs and agony, with a faint glimpse of light. As mentioned before, the escalation from minimalism to a freaked-out cluster bomb of jazz surrealism. The album indeed keeps a low profile even in its more intense moments. It is powerful and electrified, but with a low harshness impact.
The combination of the haunting instrumental work and the psychotic voice manipulation leads to a quite characteristic outcome, where the chanting is obscured under a thick haze of the marvellous guitar, reinforced by the bass and the rest and illuminated by a grim and nightmarish atmosphere. It feels like an absolute entrance to some barren wasteland and if that was their intention, they delivered it wonderfully. There’s a feeling of anticipation or the fear of waiting and they have incorporated plenty of musical elements to accurately sonically paint images of slow-paced horror.
Gravitsapa are the masters of creating overwhelming atmospheres and this can be stunningly observed (and enjoyed) in Concert No.1 23/23. The seriousness of the concept behind the album is nothing to take lightly. The duo stroll between various sub-genres of the experimental music umbrella and their whereabouts are full of surprises!