SK.EIN is a solo moniker of Sergei Kravchenko, a Belarusian artist (an architect and member of Port Mone trio), who recorded a debut album during his stay in Gdańsk, with Jacaszek as a tutor. Before that, during his youth, Sergei had explored various aesthetics of music, incl. playing drums in punk-rock and reggae bands, ending with the Paparis project (where he improvised “in the pulse of krautrock and minimal techno”). The only thing that has never changed is the fixation on recording literally everything. This, in turn, combined with the architect’s habit of structural thinking, natural desire for improvisation, experiments, and love for ambient and minimalism, resulted in the extraordinary “Crossfades” album.
One of the key elements of this record are field recordings, made by the artist mostly at the St. Mary’s Basilica in 2019 during a Catholic liturgy. They became a starting point for the development of the whole record. From Sergei’s point of view, the recorded sounds were mainly the reflection of the mood of the place and the general feeling of encountering a familiar culture – one can compare it to a visit to an Orthodox temple by any of us. The tracks on the record feature clear fragments of commonly known songs of praise and psalms – we sought to identify those and decided to include their original composers and performers. This was possible thanks to the efforts of Patryk Dopke – the St.Mary’s Basilica organist and the soprano Maria Krueger, who both analysed the finished record. Along with the main Basilica’s organist, Prof. Bogusław Grabowski, they unknowingly turned into actual performers of the particular tracks on the record.
* LP & CD includes track-by-track commentary booklet.
** Digital download includes PDF Booklet.
credits
released December 11, 2020
Written, performed, recorded and mixed by Sergei Kravchenko
Additional mix by Jacaszek
Mastered at Legatomastering by Marcin Bociński
Cover design by Wojtek Słabuszewski
Cover photos by Patryk Kuleta (Trynidada)
Inlay photos by Christina Melnyk
Text editing by Sergei Kravchenko, Tomek Hoax and Marcin Szulc
Translation by Jakub Czernieski, Krzysztof Kliszcz, Tatyana Zhelezniakova and Paulina Skurko
Proof reading by Kostia Lipiavko and Maciek Polak
Executive production by Coastline Northern Cuts: Tomek Hoax and Marcin Szulc
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