El Michels Affair
Adult Themes

This album is an assemblage……glimpses of tradition…reflections on our collective present…luminous echoes between love and solitude.hope and absurdity.euphoria and mourning.This album grapples with and transgresses these binaries because we have/and continue to cross borders. Yet, for us, the border is no metaphor—too much real staring back at us.We embody the border.We (our families) have crossed it.We (our stories) are coated with its residues.And so… we cross the border of self through our art—out of necessity.This album was imagined while touring the country as families were corralled in cages.We then fled the wildfire of a nascent pandemic poised to (especially) ravage our communities as we recorded in Los Angeles.And our sonic journey concluded in Chicago while the country rebelled against the murderous consequences of policing in the U.S.Through this cascade of tipping points and tragedy, we summoned melody and verse to sound out verdant technicolor dreams of freedom and desire, mirroring the vortex of our time.And borders were at the center of these struggles.Borders—of nation, of belonging—are the struggle.And so, this album is a set of dispatches from that wondrous journey……our journey across and into a sunburst surreal.…our astral meditations on loss and triumph.…our sonic trek across a landscape of trauma and effervescence.…The border divides and defines places—yes. But it is equally a place unto itself—a borderland.It is the forbidden place where we dwell.The enchanting space where we are at home.The bustling city where we reflect.Look into our mirror. See us in you.

The growth in popularity of jazz music in recent years has been described as a renaissance or new chapter for the genre. Attracting new audiences has seen a growth in acclaim for international artists including Kamasi Washington & The West Coast Get Down collective or BadBadNotGood. This resurgence has also been felt within british jazz scene. Musicians such as Yussef Kamaal, Shabaka Hutchings, Ruby Rushton, Nubya Garcia or Moses Boyd have put a new stamp on jazz music by fusing elements of classic jazz with modern sounds. Polish septet, EABS applies a similar philosophy to their music, blending traditional Polish Jazz with sounds from other genres, thus creating a new and personal interpretation of modern jazz.EABS debut album entitled “Repetitions (Letters To Krzysztof Komeda)” is a dedication to Polish Jazz legend Krzysztof Komeda. This album is an analysis of conscientiously selected compositions by Komeda between 1962-1967. EABS explores some of Komeda’s lesser-known compositions featured in ballet etudes, movies, short films, documentaries, animations and compositions illustrating Polish poems recited in German.Carefully chosen compositions, the background of the movies for which the music had been written and Marek Pędziwiatr’s lyrics all add up to “Repetitions” being some kind of a concept album about the condition of the human soul in the 21st century. The questions one may ask might be similar to those which could have been asked by the artists witnessing post-war debris: will history come full circle? Lack of knowledge, flourishing idiocracy, aggression, aiming for conflicts, shortage of community spirit and love may lead to another doomsday. Perhaps we simply aren’t able to see the impending doom now… Just like in a poem by Czesław Miłosz, “A Song on the End of the World”, to which Krzysztof Komeda wrote “Waltzing Beyond”.EABS have created their unique compositions by employing an approach exercising the idea of “reconstruction from deconstruction” where sampling and looping are merged with jazz improvisations. The injection of hip-hop, jungle, funk, gospel and electronic music add a futuristic tone to the tracks. However EABS have made a conscious decision to ensure their nod to Komeda enables the spirit of the Polish Jazz to remain alive. Michal Urbaniak another Polish Jazz legend is the only guest on the album. His violin can be heard on the track “Free Witch And No Bra Queen/ Sult”. creditsreleased June 17, 2017