Let me introduce to you our solar system, musically designed by Konrad Kucz.
Konrad Kucz is well known in Poland for his electronic music, sound creator, music producer and as well as a visual artist.
The covers are an artistic achievement of Andrzej Siezjenski. The color for background is neutral, used to write the pieces and the generic in black and white, suggesting a balance between the light and dark sides of a planet, enlight by the Sun.
Inside we have other three art images, with the same background. One is the planet Saturn, the most beautiful planet in our solar system. On the right is an image of the planet Mars, the most interesting planet for humans, which is best suited to build a human base on it. And, perhaps, the only one at our fingertips now. In the center is a hypothetical representation of a black hole.
The other cover is a photo of the author, in his studio, with a mysterious smile, satisfied after the culmination of an effort, a period of work. We also see presented his working instruments on the sleeve of the album, digital or analogic synthesizers.
Planetary is a sum of sounds worked, studied, meditated. The album is very suggestive in terms of visual imagination. It seems to be the contribution of some mathematicians, in some passages, of system engineers, of painters, who render planetary landscapes, of travelers who describe flights, of robots who transmit coded information. It is clear that the minimalist, experimental or avant-garde vision of other authors is outdated, here we find chiseled, worked tracks.
Planetary is also the name of the first track, sugesting the journey and landings on different soils on different planets trough various sounds designed by the author. The melodic line seems inspired by recent recordings transmitted by the Cassini spacecraft, at the passage of the Saturnian rings.
A chorus of female voices suggests in the first notes „Jupiter and beyond”, the famous soundtrack used in the „2001, A Space Odyssey” by Stanley Kubrik. But it’s just an analogy, the landscapes evolve differently. From minute 4 we dive into another universe, the universe of Konrad Kucz.
Orionsphere is an evolution towards progressive techno-electronic music. A robotic poem, a rhythmic game of sequencers.
Jupiter, in depth is the third piece. It is described by the classical organ, likea chusch sound. The rhythms are intertwined in various textures, serious – majestic, accentuated by choral voices expressing strength, gravity.
The trajectory correction is impregnated with a lot of action, changing rhythms, diversified landscapes.
We arrive at the Space Party where the rhythm is generated by a guitar, or by a sample, of course. It seems to support a dance of non-human beings. It is a play with an opening to dialogue, with a dense atmosphere, remembering a human party.
Orbital maneuvers is a ambiental track, of electronic chromatic pastel, combined with the series of robotic signals.The male choir in the second part of the song suggests the romantic impulse of the journey, of the adventure.
We come at the seventh track,Neptune – the eighth planet from the Sun. It is the second song in the album, and thelongest, showing an in-depth narration of the melodic line, of the musical story. A slow dance takes us to an ice enchantment. The loud, rhythmic, metallic sounds seem to crystallize landscapes full of a fractal geography.
Interplanetary spacecraft is a track processed like a Tangerine Dream style, with a sustained, progressive rhythm, where the instruments alternate the melodic lines.
Martian language is the most intriguing short track. It brings us a freaky movie atmosphere, towards horror, undoubtedly belonging to an extraterrestrial, non-human expressiveness.
Constant Gravitational is also a sketch of an ambientaltrack, certainly of cosmic inspiration, same very short.
Return to the Mother Earth is the return to human spiritual roots, a rebirth, similar to the symbolism of the human fetus in the Space Odyssey 2001, to which we refer again. The female choir is sublime. It is the piece with the greatest spiritual depth, crowning the planetary journey. It’s the gain we could have after a ship would take us through the Solar System. It is the image that Konrad Kucz created by walking the ship of his imagination through the space of the Solar System.
There is also a bonus to the album, Cekynus, which is a live recording from the Cekcyn Electronic Music Festival, in 2016. A dynamic, engaging song, that electrifies the atmosphere.
For now, we can only dream of moving faster than the planetary nightmare we are in now, to live new electrifies of this type, in a similar festival, at the Spacers Festival.
Jerzy Kapala did a good job of mastering the album, as a whole.
The album can be ordered through its publisher, the electronic music site generator.pl