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Apex

by Line Gate

/
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1.
I 30:00
2.
II 30:00

about

As a project, Line Gate has been undergoing a slow, steady transformation, much like the longform drone works that have come to characterise it. What began as a band in 2010 and most recently surfaced as a solitary hurdy-gurdy resonance on 'Den' in 2017 has now flourished into ‘Apex’, Michal Vaľko’s latest album. 'Apex', simultaneously an album about perceiving the beauty around us, about sacredness, and a meditation on a state of timelessness and seeming non-action, is divided into two 30-minute pieces.

The gently modulating drone of the hurdy-gurdy remains present during the first piece, along with its very characteristic (almost psychedelic) resonances and overtones. However, the listener's ear is almost immediately drawn to another sound source - the human voice. 'Apex I' presents an interplay between these two instruments, which, strangely enough, are positioned in a similar space on the frequency spectrum. The result is a mind-bending interplay between the hurdy-gurdy and the voice; one weaving around the other in seemingly indeterminable patterns.

'Apex II' takes Vaľko’s explorations of the human voice even further: the hurdy-gurdy is withdrawn. Layers of voice, some processed, some raw, are the only building block here. A resonant layer of sampled voice, not dissimilar from the hurdy-gurdy, acts as an unstable, shifting sonic bed around which a gradually growing choir of voices orbits endlessly. Sibilants, consonants and vowels recited in mantra-like cycles form a non-linguistic vocal tapestry, one without explicit meaning, but imbued with huge emotional gravity and a unique enchanting quality.

credits

released December 1, 2020

Music by Line Gate
Hurdy-gurdy, voice
linegate.bandcamp.com

Recorded, mixed, cover art by Line Gate

Mastered by Adam Badí Donoval
abdonoval.com

Words by Adam Badí Donoval

Risograph print by Kudla Press
kudlapress.tumblr.com

Photography by Leontína Berková
leontinaberkova.com

Thanks to Jakub Lysý for help with cover art.
hungry.sk

Released by mappa as MAP022 in 2020

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about

mappa Lucenec, Slovakia

liquid cartography
sonic wanderings

mappa.editions
@gmail.com

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