Lesne Duchy

2xLP

2023

Approximately three years after the release of their debut album, Etnobotanika are back. Le?ne Duchy is yet another joint release from the Silesian duo, coming out on the collaborative efforts of Superkasety Records and The Very Polish Cut Outs. These are still the sounds of a dusty old cassette, however this time the digging didn't take place in the allotment gardens, but rather somewhere in the woods, within a thick layer of moss. Hauntology and nostalgia still play important roles yet they are no longer in the foreground. Certain associations with primordial magic, wild backwoods and unspeakable mysteries come to the fore

The ambience encapsulated in these tropes is the key to understanding this album. One can, of course, mention that sonically the producers are once again flirting with dubtechno, ambient and sampled collages, but all these genre clichés are only tools resulting from the individual inspirations and experiences of Alergeek and Uwdar (i.e. the two halves of Etnobotanika), and are meant to build the right mood, not to put Le?ne Duchy into the tight framework of, say, club music or trip-hop. If this album is to be pinned down to anything, it is probably library music. The 80 minutes of music spanning two vinyl records and a chunk of cassette tape make for quite a long record, Etnobotanika however make sure there is absolutely no dullness, precisely thanks to the variety of moods

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