Tricky once commented that he enjoyed listening to lyrics he couldn't quite understand: The missing parts made you zoom in even more attentively, enhancing the experience. While I see the point in defining the concept or technical procedure behind a particular recording, I have likewise always felt a preference for artists who did not feel the need to explain every single detail. „La Ciutat Ets Tu“, too, profits from its non-disclosing policy.

Nothing but two short sentences provide scant information on the equipment used for the album: „All music performed and recorded by Tomasz Krakowiak 2007. Tools: Percussion and Microphone Placements.“ When the album opens with the wobbling undulations of „bal“, that is hard to believe. A question rises from the ashes of this stuttering, stumbling tribal tour de force: How did he do it?

Even after several spins, it remains hard to say. Krakowiak appears to make use of a vast array of metal objects and drums, from concrete sources such as cymbals and toms to bowed blades, gyrating discs, loose objects inside cannisters and grinding machines. The big mystery is whether or not overdubs were used in the performance process, as individual tracks seem to both play against each other at times and to be continually transformed over the duration of a piece.

In the absence of a fully convincing rationale, the music itself gains the upper hand. Krakowiak is not a deconstructionist, he may (or not) use his percussive instruments in uncoventional ways, but he still does so to create a new sense of rhythm, which either manifests itself as grating steps (the title piece), as rippling movement („drgacze“) or as a sawing sensation, which gradually melts into a high-pitched shreek („sink“). The odd exception to the rule is the dark ambient texture of „o_vbrdub“, but it is quickly replaced by the harsh noise perturbations of „aigua per A“.

There is an immense concentration behind all tracks, a notion of complete control even in moments when things seem to adhere to the logic of chaos. This turns „La Ciutat Ets Tu“ into an almost meditative affair, despite its occasional dynamic outbursts and eclectic diversity. Whatever Tomasz Krakowiak may be doing here, he is surely doing it according to plan.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: Tomasz Krakowiak
Homepage: Etude Records