„With ‚Obfuscation‘ Ilia Gorovitz delivers a haunting, polyglot tour de rhythme. Its wiry percussions and multifaceted vocal contributions embedded in a coherent bass-heavy, downtempo, theurgic ambience makes it one of the most captivating records of the year - or, put differently: Simply Bangers!“
Lorenz Erdmann - Moniker Eggplant
An Incredible contemporary lp hosting crisp & weighty production gleefully dodging genres whilst nodding its head respectfully to Test Dept & Diamanda Galas thus making this essential !
Cherrystones
"Gloomy, aggressive, heavy… carefully crafted piece of art”
DJ Die Soon
Ilia Gorovitz' first full solo album on his own Edelfaul imprint is everything but a solo album. Instead of playing all by himself, the multi-instrumentalist and producer laid down drum tracks using heavy treatments, mutilations and a few things that usually not serve as drums. He sent the results to a variety of friends and strangers, inviting them to add their voices to each one of them.
The outcome is a dozen of heavy listening tracks, mostly under 4 minutes, all stretching the boundaries of rap, spoken word, microtonal singing, joyful noise and primal scream. Twelve voices in different languages (English, German, Japanese, Hebrew, Chinese, Portuguese, and Ukrainian), all in dialogue with the other oldest instrument in the world: the drum.
Obfuscation is IG’s first Edelfaul feature in album length. His decision to pair each beat with a different vocal style led to a variety of collaborations with performers from his hometown Berlin and abroad. The opening invocation features Perperúna, a multi-voiced vocal ensemble dedicated to polyphonic singing traditions from Greece to the Balkan and the Mediterranean basin. Wuzi Khan has started out as an MC in the Berlin Drum&Bass scene and has now splintered into a variety of musical identities and approaches, some of them released on Edelfaul. Saskia is a Brazilian artist IG found on the internet, searching for distinct voices. He reached out, she answered, and after crafting “Katalyse” over the distance, there are now talks of further collaborations. Quite similar is the story behind “Zgarische” a collab with Ukrainian singer Diana Tarnavska who sent her vocal files from exile in Istanbul. Gabby is an artist IG met during his short but inspirational time in Los Angeles. As a fan of her music, he kept contact and reached out when it was time for this project, which on more than one level, wraps up his studies and artistic experiences of the last years. As another example, Ofer Tisser and Diburnagua are friends from IG’s time in Jerusalem. Together they form the noisical poetry duo Spirit Skinned, whose debut was also released on Edelfaul. With Igor Krutologov IG goes back even further in history, Igor being his uncle and probably early prompt towards sound research way off the beaten tracks.
The remaining artists come from many different places and backgrounds and are currently all residing in Berlin. IG met Shiomi Kawaguchi met when he was recording Hazama, the second album of the Berlin based shamisen ensemble Mitsune, of which Shiomi is a part of. On “Abuku”, she brings both her voice and the shamisen to the party, which subsequently turns out rather eerie. Infinite Livez was introduced to Ilia by the label’s co-runner Sun Ra Bullock. The visual artist, writer, rapper, producer and musician has been active in the Berlin underground for more than 15 years and is adding some UK flavour to the mix. Chinese sound artist su dance110 is just one of the many connections that IG made with the Berlin underground scene after the lockdown. You will hear more from them on Edelfaul shortly. As a promoter, sound engineer and player IG has hosted a series of nights dedicated to reckless sound research. Some of these occasions have been recorded and mixed and will be collected in a tape compilations series called Federhall. Closing the album is the longest take, a collaboration with Berlin trickster Asja Skrinik which led to IG’s most recent duo project PΞB. Their debut tape album is up for release this year.
It will be the third in a row of Edelfaul releases that carry the full weight of Ilia Gorovitz’ signature skills as a musician, engineer, producer, mixer and label head.
credits
released May 2, 2024
Drums, production and mix by Ilia Gorovitz
Shamisen on track 6 by Shiomi Kawaguchi
Lyrics on track 7 by Oksana Karpovych
mastering and vinyl cut by Rashad Becker
pressed at DMS
Outer Sleeve artwork by Kevin Gray
Inner sleeve artwork by Gaya Kolman
Handwriting by Asia Skrinik
Get the physical copy here:
https://edelfaulrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/obfuscation
