At the turn of November and December 2025, I came down with the flu and was forced to stay at home for a long time. Out of boredom, whilst running a fever and with an infection that had spread to my ears, I sat down to play instruments, objects and samples I hadn’t touched in ages. For a few years, I’d been thinking about recording an album of music. Just ordinary music with melody, rhythm, harmony and structure – as opposed to the noise and field recordings I usually make. Who knows, maybe it’ll sell somewhere for something, like ‘26 Mixes for Cash’ (minus AT’s talent).
It was under these circumstances – half-deaf, semi-unconscious – that I sat down to work. And since I’m only a mediocre musician and don’t have much original thought in me – but plenty of ideas I’ve overheard and passed on as my own (in the spirit of the saying ‘the composer’s privilege is theft’) – I thought that each of the tracks would be a borrowing from the style of an artist I’d recently listened to.
Many titles contain references to their sources of inspiration. ‘Walk of Breadcrumbs’ refers to a scene from Princess Mononoke where Ashitaka carries a wounded man through the forest, accompanied on his journey by spirits – the kodama. The breadcrumbs, meanwhile, are a reference to the song ‘Breadcrumb Trail’ by Slint, which I listened to obsessively whilst creating this track.
‘Maschine of War’ also references „Princess Mononoke”; the tapping sound at the beginning is the sound of a kodama wounded in battle, whilst musically, with its wistful guitars, it continues to draw on Slint as well as Wovenhand.
„Wody Polskie Fuck Off v1” is a middle finger directed at the eponymous destructive institution Wody Polskie. It is the most abstract and noisy piece, in which the life of the beautiful River Marycha – which I recorded in 2024 in Sejny – resonates, and it ends with a cut-up harsh noise screech, symbolising the devastation on Polish rivers by excavators operated by Wody Antypolskie. In creating this track, I was inspired by the album „Abhorrence and Dismay” by MAAAA, which is what got me started in harsh noise.
“XYZ Blues” draws on both Wovenhand and the album XXYYXX – an album in the dubstep / garage / chillwave / trip-hop style – as well as a whole load of early, classic minimalist dubstep, where I’d crank up the bass to feel some vibrations whilst I was ill.
‘Ibanez Heart Tripleneck’ is the name of Steve Vai’s guitar. The inspiration behind this track was the desire to simulate the overproduced and bombastic style of 1980s glam rock/metal. Big hair, huge guitars, aggressive synthesisers – it’s a final countdown! That’s how it was meant to turn out, but it turned out quite differently.
I played every instrument myself. The array of kit included the following devices and sound sources:
Korg Volca Keys, Zoom R8, Zoom MS-70CDR, Korg Kaossilator Mini mkI, electric guitars, bass guitar, percussion instruments, objects, tapes, field recordings.
I did the mixing and mastering myself.
I’ve duplicated 50 cassettes. Each cassette costs 35 zł plus postage. Parts 1 and 2 of the ‘Chamber Music’ trilogy are also available for purchase at the same price. Buy them as a bundle and save! Three cassettes cost just 90 zł.
Orders can be placed at kontakt@maciejwirmanski.pl