Rafal Zapala — Futility
Rafal Zapala is a Polish composer/improviser whose work blurs the lines between modern classical composition and avant-electronic sound. Futility offers up five pieces from him dating from between 2018 and 2021, and each mixes formal classical instrumentation with electronic elements.
This CD album release appears on Austrias Kairos Music. The cover artwork takes in a tightly lined textural blend of green, grey and white lines- and fittingly you can’t define if it’s electrical or organically created. As with all the releases on this label we have stuck on a glossy inlay booklet- this runs at thirty-five pages, taking in English & German texts about Zapala, the pieces, and their players.
The release opens with “No Meaning Detected”. This 2018 piece is built around violin plucks ‘n’ swoons, minimal & clinical electro blips, and rambling electro-hazed female spoken texts. There’s “Judge Me Again” which is for flute & live electronics- it sets out a dartling-to-urgent sound world, which bubbles, manically breaths and weirdly warbles like an alien swamp.
The release is finished off with “Scrolling To Zero” which is for keyboards & electronics. It blends lines reeling ‘n’ unevenly jiving organ tones, eerily electro-warbled female texts, and all manner of subtle hiss ‘n’ sweep. Before in its later moments dropping into a tonally oppressive/ dense blend of key sustains & electro slices
Zapala sound worlds are strange & often jarring blends of organic & electronic. Futility feels like you are listening into a not-far-off future where AI has developed it's own quirky to uneasy take on modern classical composition.