Hauntology From Bulgaria, Japan, and Sweden
Forgotten futures through the sounds of Evitceles (Bulgaria), The Silence (Japan), and El Huervo (Sweden)
We have handpicked three hauntological tunes of different flavors and countries. We hope longing for a dead future does not become one of your daily chores, but the pleasure can keep you tied to the post for future references and wisdom.
Burial-like Hauntology From Bulgaria
I, too, will never be able to adjust to the paradoxes of this new situation. The immediate temptation here is to fit what I’m saying into a wearily familiar narrative: it is a matter of the old failing to come to terms with the new, saying it was better in their day. Yet it is just this picture — with its assumption that the young are automatically at the leading edge of cultural change — that is now out of date.
~ Mark Fisher, The Slow Cancellation of the Future
It is through songs like “Elanchol” by Evitceles that we come closer to the fact that the world Burial created less than a decade ago was a little bit more than just a new trendy genre. Evitceles is far from the name that will be on any chart, radar, or list any time soon (even though we keep our fingers crossed that artistry prevails against corporate commercialism someday somewhere sometime). Yet, relating to these audio-specters takes almost no effort other than having either Burial, Boards of Canada, or any Andy Stott-related project in your favorites list.
Evitceles has been hard at work for years shows the Bandcamp profile, and we are glad to be telling you about it. This is not the sound of South London underwater, however. Etien Slavchev’s hauntology starts in a bedroom in Bulgaria where he composes and mixes the drizzling solitude of a soul disintegrating slowly by memories echoing back after a drunk night out. A distant cry, a crackling beat, and an urban post-00:00 serenity are the soundtrack to the nocturnal world we are living in. “Elanchol” is just another elegy to a doomed utopia. And this time, it sounds like the eulogy we are all getting used to. It allegedly knows no English boundaries and it has parted ways with dubstep a long time ago.
