[Reviewed by Damiano Lanzi]
I remember that listening to the first Kapital album dated 2014, I had the impression of a perfectly working alchemy between the two different worlds of Rafał Iwański (X-NAVI:ET) and Kuba Ziołek (Stara Rzeka). Furthermore, “No New Age” was original in its approach of instrumentation, and had an unique atmosphere that made me love that record, so I was really curious to listen to their new material. Here the harmony between these two halves is even improved. I had already noted the taste that Kapital have for symmetry and duality from many clues: the album titles, the anagrams in the song titles, the artworks, the fact itself of them being a duo, the equilibrium that they create between noise and musicality, concreteness and abstraction, humanity and mechanization. Their music always seems like a quest for perfection given by the sublimation of opposite elements, and often they manage to find it in the form of a perfectly balanced output.
In this case this passion for beauty through contradiction already appears when looking at the cover: a shiny diamond on a blank background, a symmetric symbol of natural perfection and a title that instead speaks about chaos. In fact, when you open the digipak the diamond appears again, but this time shattered, with the splinters spread over the white. As if to say that perfection comes from the negation of chaos; one stays inside and behind the other and vice versa. Maybe it’s in this way that their formula works. Being already familiar with the first album, maybe their sound made a little less “shocking” impression on me on this new one, but it’s still fresh and original. It has been rather refined and expanded with new instruments and inspirations. The radically different thing is the overall atmosphere, and in this sense the white on the cover creates an anticipation of what you’re going to listen. The sounds are clearer, more airy and less stifling than in the dark “No New Age”. So a kind of duality emerges between the sense of the two records, as if the second one completes the first. This result is also enhanced by the use of more traditional instruments such as acoustic guitars, clarinet, various kinds of percussions and even a Balkan dvojnica flute. So while the Kapital trademark soundscapes stay intact, these acoustic fragments are really surprising for the listener. This happens in a gem like “The Music of Goodbye”, the only proper “song” with sung lyrics: a beautiful and melancholic folk-ambient track in the mood of Alexander Tucker. In “M.I.T.” the electro-acoustic experimentation goes even further, adding glitch rhythms to a Spanish guitar melody in the beginning and to a very present 12-string guitar with delay afterwards. In the end “Chaos to Chaos” is an excellent follow-up. It shows how Kapital still want to find new solutions, while maintaining their essence intact.
Kapital – Chaos To Chaos
Instant Classic
CD/Digital 2015
Santa Sangre 