Andrey Kiritchenko
"Bees & Honey" CD
Zeromoon
Genres: glitch, ambient experimental
electronica
Zeromoon
4518 Avondale St.
Apt. B
Bethesda, MD
20814 USA
Jan 26 - Feb 1 2004 |
Bees & Honey is Ukrainian sound artist Andrey
Kiritchenko's most recent album under his own name, following a number
of MP3 releases and compilation appearances. Also known as Nihil
Est Excellence and Sidhartha, Kiritchenko has a
unique, glitchy approach to electronic music that is quite peaceful
and ambient, though far from commonly accessible. Elements of Fennesz,
Farmers Manual, and the more experimental side of Pluramon
all reside in his unique sound, which occupies the first five tracks
of this album, followed by ten remixes. The main selling point of this album is probably going to be the
last ten tracks, which feature names such as Scanner, Kim
Cascone, Cray, and Freiband. However, one
shouldn't feel any need to skip past Bees & Honey's first
tracks; they are, in fact, some of the best on this disc. Kiritchenko
has a knack for creating mesmerizing, pretty tablets of ambient sound
sculpture. Each of his tracks is comprised of clicky, glitchy
sounds spliced together seamlessly. Opener "Moonshine"
is reminiscent of Fennoberg's legendary recordings, while
"Bees Scattered" is pure Farmers' Manual. All
of this will appeal to fans of the Mego, Touch, and Ash labels.
The remixes, or, more accurately, reconstructions, don't stray far from the album's general formula. The
two last tracks, remixes by Cray and Freiband, seem to
be a bit more glitch-exclusive, with little to no tunefulness at
all. Violet also contributes a very noisy piece of
sound. Contributions by Scanner and The Moglass
are among the best, though they aren't too far off from Kiritchenko's
source material.
Overall, Bees & Honey is a very satisfying experimental
electronic release. Its niche is very specific, but Kiritchenko
succeeds in staying in the genre's boundaries - and in the end it's
all for the best. Recommended.
87%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 14 tracks, distributed by the
label, released 2003] |
