Sympli Romatikó

3 piece band with 3 pieces

Denis Kolokol - electronics and voice

Tomek Chołoniewski – drums, percussion and voice

Alexander Chikmakov - guitars


Sympli Romatikó is a very succesful marriage of live electronics with voice, guitar and percussive experiments.


The most astounding element of the music those three gentlemen composed is that it is devoid of the typical and self-referential element that most of the free-improvised music has - it's not just a series of events mingled and blend into one - it's more of a dynamical shape and keeps the reigns of the structure which is the usual problem with free improv which tends to sail into chaos, if it's organised or not, soundwise interesting - still chaos.


The material is so diverse and flexible, multi-referential that it might pose a serious question where is experimental improvised music now and definitely could be utisilised in different contexts such as dance play.


The means used here are also playing a very important role as the density is not created by dentistry - it doesn't have to be the drill way of stochiastic noise to hit the right timbres - it's more of the case of serious composing skills that Denis, Alexander and Tomek possess.


What's more - the right amount of timing and balance between the vocal and the orchestration of the electronically modified parts and live instruments makes me feel somewhat dangerously cosy just before something really touching happens.


It's probably the album I can pinpoint onto the albums of the year list.