II - Vinyl

Description

Mario Batkovic’s music occupies a singular space, halfway between composition, performance, and sonic experimentation. Based in Bern, Switzerland, this composer, accordionist, and multi-instrumentalist has developed a deeply personal musical language, rooted in a radical questioning of the accordion, its timbre, its mechanics, its physicality, and its rhythmic potential. In Batkovic’s hands, the instrument goes far beyond its conventional role: it becomes a source of complex, evolving sounds, where performer and instrument become one. On II, Batkovic ventures further into radical, uncompromising, and experimental territory, both in the reduction and expansion of sound. Voices overlap, rhythmic structures develop an almost mechanical force, and the sonic layers evoke analog synthesizers. Then everything fades away: near-total silence, the breath of the bellows, a single frequency. Sounds emerge that can barely be attributed to any particular instrument. The album is entirely built around the physical relationship between a musician and an instrument. No loops, no electronic layers. Everything you hear comes from an uncompromising exploration of the instrument itself. A primitive force of creation and destruction.