Electrify’s 22nd event hosts three artists who have been developing their respective musical languages through years of systematic work to reach a point where they can all take the shape of many different styles and articulate a breath of sensibilities. A defining figure of the electronic music landscape, Actress returns to Budapest after eight years in Februrary, Italian experimental musician Not Waving appears for the first time while extremely prolific artist Új Bála will represent the local scene.
Darren Cunningham was never supposed to be a musician. He was preparing for a life in professional football until a career ending injury forced him to change plans. That was the moment he started discovering the tricks of music production. Fast-forward just a few years and he was releasing one of the most defining albums of his time under the moniker Actress. With hazy, dusty layers, Cunningham quickly rewrote the formulae of well-known dance music genres. This characteristic sound made it possible for techno, house, dub, ambient and hiphop tropes to coexist and still yield a coherent universe. Albums like Hazyville or Ghettoville depicted the anxiety and yearning of 21st century urban life just as poignantly as his peer Burial. Beyond his releases (six albums, the most recent ones released by Honest Jon’s and Ninja Tunes), his collaborations (London Symphonic Orchestra, Damon Albarn) and label, Werkdiscs (jumpstarting the careers of Helena Hauff, Lone or Lukid for example) all testify about his great success as an artist.
Not Waving’s Alessio Natalizia has amassed an equally enviable catalogue of exceptional music in the last twenty-five years as well. In his younger years he was part of a pop-punk band in the 90s, later continued in a post-punk act and finally reached his first real breakthrough as one half of Walls. The duo released five full-length albums on Kompakt, becoming an important force on the legendary label and an in-demand touring project worldwide. After the great success of Walls, Natalizia started his solo project Not Waving which to this day demonstrates the many different cultural influences of the artist. After all, there are not many discographies that have soft, calming, grandiose ambient pieces reminiscent of Brian Eno, dance-pop songs designed for maximum impact and stark, fierce EBM or electro tracks born to be blasted in dark rooms. What’s common in most of his projects is probably the strong focus on the notion of melody and dynamic textures as well as a meticulous minimalism which is always capable of portraying complex, powerful emotions with very few tools.
Natalizia has also founded his own label Ecstatic, presents his own show on NTS Radio, worked together with Jim O’Rourke, Marie Davidson, Mark Lanegan, Powell or Jay Glass Dubs, composed music for Sean Rogg’s wonderfully ambitious performance The Waldorf Project and still had the time to work on projects such as compiling 80s Italian new wave songs for Strut. It’s hard to say which direction Not Waving will take next, and even harder to guess which face of the project we’ll see at Trafó House but it’s definitely not an appearance you want to miss.
Új Bála is the project of Budapest-based Gábor Kovács which melts noise, psychedelia, techno, punk and dub into one and charms the listener with broken rhythmic patterns and mangled melodies. Új Bála’s music walks the fine line where a groove already manages to captivate the onlooker but it is so unstable, so close to crumbling that we cannot take our eyes off of them. The listener wants to be there when they collapse and so we remain absolutely vigilant in the hope of observing the moment of self-destruction in slow-motion, frame by frame. Until that happens, everyone is more than happy having to wade through towers of chaotic squeaks and hissing to witness order somehow overcoming the struggle.
Gábor Kovács is one of the most prolific local musicians. Among other projects he was the singer of the extraordinary post-punk band Der Tanz, releases dub styled experiments as one half of Dutch Courage and lands his music on labels such as Dalmata Daniel, Baba Vanga, Nona, Altered States Tapes or Czaszka Records.
