Surreal Voyagers - "Seeking Mother"

Surreal Voyagers

Aleksander Wnuk, percussion & electronics
Michał Lazar, electric guitar & electronics

album's title: Seeking Mother

Antenna Non Grata (2024)

Review author: Viačeslavas Gliožeris

Composed or improvised music using a processed guitar isn't a new thing. Depending on where the listener comes from, some key figures are Robert Fripp (for rock fans) and Eivind Aarset (for listeners with a jazz background). Surreal Voyagers are the duo of guitarist Michał Lazar and percussionist Aleksander Wnuk, both playing the electronics as well, who continue that tradition.

If Fripp's soundscapes were Terra incognita of sorts three decades ago, at least for a wider public, nowadays there is a long list of artists, combining electronic guitars, ambient with white noise, Musique concrète, loops, etc, etc. Surreal Voyagers, whose background is rooted in classic musical education and who are known for playing composed/improvised soundtracks for silent movies and creating music for dance performances, on their debut album (recorded live), offer three pieces of ephemeral atmosphere.

As stated in the liner notes, "Seeking Mother" was created as part of the dance show Manhattan, but later developed into an independent musical project. Recorded live on May 14 during the Musica Polonica Nova Festival 2022, the album's music is quite static, fluid, and almost meditative. There is a detailed concept of the whole program, but in the liner notes, again, there is an accurate description in short form - "a space where time has stopped ". The album's three compositions offer a mix of post-rock, ambient, and electronic soundscapes, with noticeable contemporary classical music influence, partially dark, but probably more lonely. Artists' experience of creating soundtracks is obvious anyway. This music is more about atmosphere, emotional state, than action or substance.

Depending on personal background and taste, one can say that "there's a music where not much happens", or "there's a lot of moods and nuances". Most probably, it's not an album the listener will listen to often, but everyone can decide for themselves. In all cases, this is a professional music searching for its own space.