Review on “Star Corsair” on Vital Weekly

vitalweekly.net/1305.html

“Hot on the heels of Dmytro Fedeorenko’s Variat LP (see Vital Weekly 1303), there is a new release on his imprint Prostir. This new release is by his duo Kateryna Zavoloka. The initial idea was to compose imaginary music soundtracks, but they turned to the book ‘Star Corsair’ by Ukrainian science fiction author, philosopher and dissident Oles’ Berdnyk. I had not heard of the man before, but, so I learned, he was into ‘true freedom and personal development. It is not easy to find information online in a language I understand (unless I am too quick and not looking in the right direction). But without the knowledge here, one can enjoy the music by itself. I already reviewed two previous releases (Vital Weekly 1104 and 1158) from them, and this new one is a stylistic continuation of those earlier releases. In much of their solo work, there is a strong love for sonic overload on both the rhythm and synthesizer side, and it is also something they bring to the table here, but there is certainly also room for some more toned down sounds. A cosmic music edge, if you will, and not just as an introduction or outro, but throughout an entire song. That means that overall, Cluster Lizard is on the move when it comes to playing their music. The heavy Pan Sonic inspired approach is never far away, but in the way Cluster Lizard adds, synthesizers expand on the minimalist rhythm end and add colour to the music. That is something I noted before in their music, but now it is even richer. ”The Drop Reflects The Ocean In Itself’ is a fine dark piece of ambient music, and the closing piece, ‘Eternity Code’, is just a spacious exploration and no rhythm insight. In most of the pieces, rhythm plays an important role and the industrial, repeating minimalism of the music gives it a powerful edge. I enjoyed this careful balancing act between the atmospherics and the industrial edge quite a lot. Play loud! (FdW)”