This experiment is one that roars to life in moments, with the stark combination of ZoiD’s experimental glitch electronics and Konchevska’s ghostly vocal range. On the other hand, it’s difficult to fully cross into their world as the material doesn’t mesmerise enough—it functions well but doesn’t crawl under your skin.
We last wrote about ZoiD in 2018 when he released his latest full-length album Nebulous Concrete, an electronic jazz experiment. It was familiar territory for ZoiD, yet the production was astounding. Dorota Konchevska is a vocalist and producer who also holds commissions in art and audio-visual installations. Konchevska’s style is in experimenting with her voice, often manipulating her voice with electronic looping techniques. Her most popular track “Psycho Suzie” is likely the easiest introduction to her style. ZoiD Vs Dorota Konchevska is both of these producers collaborating together. Both ZoiD and Konchevska crossover into the same experimental field and it makes sense that they’d work together.
Combining jazz elements into electronic music is challenging. The genre barely exists and there isn’t a breakout that’s cracked this code successfully. Jazz-electronica is a genre that remains in obscurity and no one’s nailed it yet. ZoiD’s still trying to crack this code. How do you combine both these genres together, to resonate with people and function as listenable music? An answer may have been to use a vocalist.
ZoiD and Dorota Konchevska have a defiant nature about them. They’re artists first and have put together an EP which works from their point of view. Both ZoiD and Konchevska are wonderfully inventive and it’s likely both of them are experimenting stylistically in this EP with what they can produce together, rather than creating a deeply rich sounding EP. That’s not to say both of these producers aren’t trying to convey a deep message in these tunes, it’s simply obvious that there’s a novelty about this work. Konchevska’s voice is permanently layered on top of ZoiD’s electronic percussion, like a display object. There’s rarely any breaks or surprising deviations heard. It’s as if they are exploring each other’s artistic boundaries together and are satisfied with this EP offering for now. Yet it comes across sounding safe for two people who push on the edges of art. The style of the EP is also unclear as each track sounds different, ranging in style from electronica, electronic-jazz, shoegaze and trip-hop. The EP is best defined as an experiment.
This experiment is one that roars to life in moments, with the stark combination of ZoiD’s experimental glitch electronics and Konchevska’s ghostly vocal range. On the other hand, it’s difficult to fully cross into their world as the material doesn’t mesmerise enough—it functions well but doesn’t crawl under your skin.
The EP opener, “Four Sparks” glitches and bumps along with Konchevska leading the way. Second track “Backwards Time” is a dreamy downtempo rumble and we hear Konchevska in her fullest ghostly form. Third track “Money” has Konchevska criticise social media use in her lyrics and ZoiD combines his electronics with jazz guitar riffs. Fourth track “Wild Rice” is definitely the EP highlight. It’s trip-hop, Massive Attack lite, with a wonderful blend of Konchevska’s natural voice and delay—ZoiD’s heard in the background playing synth pads and keeping a relaxed beat. It’s got a refreshing tone to it – simple, crisp and straight to the point compared to the more experimental efforts which came earlier in the EP.
ZoiD’s style was once described as “either the future of jazz, or the end of jazz as we know it,” which accurately describes how on the edge of the jazz-electronic world he was. In this EP he’s restrained and disciplined, mostly heard in electronic percussion and guitar interludes. Dorota Konchevska takes centre stage and her voice fills the lower mid tones of ZoiD’s productions that are often not present. Konchevska, at times, has a heavenly quality to her voice and a multi-layered sound that fits amazingly well with ZoiD’s electronics. Yet things aren’t quite ready here for take-off. Both these producers are figuring one another out. Hopefully the intention of ZoiD Vs Dorota Konchevska is the starting gun for a deeper collaboration.
ZoiD Vs Dorota Konchevska is available on Zoitrax.
