波動 (HADOW) by IFS meets MA

IFS meets … is an artistic and curatorial project by Krzysztof Ostrowski and Mateusz Wysocki, resulting from their collaboration with three vocalists: MA, AGF, and spalarnia. The starting point was the creative process between the producers and vocalists, expressed in attention to the needs of the other person, sharing inspiration, working in the studio, organizing a shared space, and performing together.

From the very beginning, IFS has been characterized by interpersonal relationships and creative collaboration. Initially, it was an exchange of ideas between the initiators of the project, Krzysztof Ostrowski and Mateusz Wysocki, but as IFS developed, the musical horizon began to expand to include additional artists who brought new quality to the producers' work. This interpersonal dimension can be heard particularly clearly on IFS albums and tracks recorded together with rappers ALchinBond, M.STO, Prykson Fisk, Kosi, Bryndal, Ńemy, and Mada. However, it was the album recorded with Japanese vocalist and post-rapper MA, entitled “REIFSMA,” that broke all genre limitations. Released by the Guides label, the album combined Ostrowski and Wysocki’s fascination with a tempo of 160 BPM with MA’s avant-garde vocal strategies. The musicians performed at the Unsound festival, and their debut album was very well received by critics and listeners. Two years after the release of REIFSMA, it was time for a second album.

Initially, the new album was supposed to be just an EP containing three new songs supplemented with remixes of selected tracks from the debut album. However, the idea for the REIFSMA remixes turned into a compilation, which was released in 2024 together with the reissue of the debut album. In turn, the three new tracks that were created at that time marked the beginning of work on the next record.

The starting point for the new recordings was an attempt to create something completely different from what the artists had recorded on REIFSMA. The opening track of the album, 波動 (HADOW), already signals this change. In SAKAI, we hear a completely new musical side of IFS – organic ambient music without a clearly defined pulse. An additional surprise here is the guest appearance of saxophonist Marek Pospieszalski, whose instrumental incrustations enrich the musical and vocal narrative of IFS MA. The next track, KAMEN, begins with a single strike of a gong. Immediately after it fades away, a nervous and rough pulse comes to the fore, joined after a moment by MA's melodious voice. This melodic motif, in different variations, can be heard again in the tracks TZWYSOW and WOTOZLE (and a moment earlier in SAKAI), making the narrative and avant-garde madness of the vocalist known from REIFSMA more accessible, even song-like in character.

In KILOQH, Ostrowski and Wysocki have created a spacious and bubbling soundscape, with MA's distorted vocals wailing in the background like a haunting siren song. RHYDEN brings a moment of relief with its tarry dub groove, while organic percussion gives the track a slightly jazzy feel. MA switches from one register to another, changing the timbre and intonation of his voice each time. In QUMO, the idyllic atmosphere gradually fades away, replaced by sounds evoking distant associations with YAKSOQ from REIFSMA. Minimalist pulsations and MA's effect-processed voice introduce us to this disturbing atmosphere. TZWYSOW intensifies this feeling of multi-layered compulsive nervousness. From the first sounds of the track, MA sets a disturbing tone with his wild vocalizations that transition into singing. In HA, we hear raw synthetic rhythms that perfectly drive MA's monotonously meandering voice. The final track, WOTOZLE, is a melodic closure to the whole, punctuated by rhythmic counterpoints created by IFS.

IFS MA's debut album had a lot of natural spontaneity, and the process of creating REIFSMA was fast, even automatic. In turn, 波動 (HADOW) reveals deeper contemplation and precision. The album is more restrained in its choice of tools and less literal. In many tracks, MA's voice is deeply embedded in their structure, creating a bass line or dictating the way specific sounds appear. This completely changed Ostrowski and Wysocki's approach to producing the new album. While the music on REIFSMA was largely based on the unrestrained spontaneity of IFS and MA, 波動 (HADOW) – which in Japanese means vibration, wave motion – resembles an attempt to master this energy or to harmoniously interact with its hidden potential.

outlines is a searching label. It starts with Chicago Footwork and aims at new forms, outlines and intuitions.

guides, is the more frivolous branch of outlines, where releases are characterised by greater freedom of form.

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