Shine Grooves :: Free Waltz (Artificial Owl Recordings)

Free Waltz drifts through jazzy musique concrète, dubby techno, and ambient improvisation, capturing Andrey Kurokhtin’s rare gift for turning analog experiments and fleeting studio jams into a vivid, living electronic universe.

Jazz ghosts meet machine rhythms

 

Free Waltz has a jazzy bluesy musique concrete kind of groove, somehow combining ambient, techno, experimental, liquid acid, dub techno, and electronique, comfortably connecting at the free heart in the listening universe. Free Waltz is a testament to Andrey Kurokhtin’s boundless creativity and his ability to translate fleeting moments into enduring sound. As a producer, engineer, and creator of the Magnitron cassette mixer, Kurokhtin brings a wealth of technical expertise to Free Waltz.

The Magnitron-1 Cassette Mixer, is a unique, handcrafted electronic musical instrument that lets you play and blend sounds from two cassette decks simultaneously, offering independent pitch, volume, and EQ control for each deck, essentially turning tape into a playable, expressive sound source for lo-fi or experimental music, a complete creative tool for manipulating analog audio. You can create evolving soundscapes, rhythmic patterns, or manipulate recorded samples in novel ways, leveraging the inherent imperfections and charm of analog tape.

“Free Waltz is a testament to Andrey Kurokhtin’s boundless creativity and his ability to translate fleeting moments into enduring sound.” ~Robin B James

Andrey Kurokhtin also runs Hanagasumi, a hand-stamped label dedicated to non-commercial music, he owns a vinyl shop in Yekaterinburg, and creates unique gear like the Magnitron, all deeply embedded in the underground scene. Hanagasumi is a beautiful Japanese term meaning “flower haze,” suggesting the fleeting beauty of spring, symbolizing the impermanence and romance in Japanese art and poetry, appropriate for a captivating journey through experimental and ambient soundscapes, pressed on limited-edition yellow vinyl for collectors and audiophiles alike.

Many of these compositions were born from extended jam sessions in his studio, where creativity flows freely. Free Waltz—with Artificial Owl Recordings—showcases Kurokhtin’s mastery of an extensive array of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, and effectors, blended with intricate digital plugins and meticulous processing. This sonic palette creates a rich, immersive sound that bridges experimental, ambient, and electronic genres, offering listeners a deeply personal and evocative experience.

Where tape becomes instrument ::

Opening with “Kazumi” (6:48), kinetic lively dreams, with snappy beats and a larger breathing in and out drone behind the popping and jumping. The track “Saturday Dub” (4:00) establishes a walking tempo, slow melodic tones upstairs and wet frogs with crickets downstairs for some dark tricky fun, definitely dreamy, where I am releasing the ping pong balls into the tile hallway by the stairs, I start measuring intervals between staccato clicks, it fits with the steady walking feeling, a sophisticated Saturday. The rhythmic movement and variation in sound is controlled by the “LFO Ensemble” (4:20), who enters our listening proscenium on bubbly underwater helicopters, bringing a complicated tempo, several rhythms at once, somehow giving an easy light feeling, some jammin’ in there, bluesy, I am swooning from the weave of complex bubbling beats and some jazzy spices.

Awakening to the guys talking, with the reverberation and echo of a wet cave. I have no idea what is being said, just a little talking with the click beats, a crow jumps in, “Probuzhdenie” (3:43) starts by ticking like a jazzy clock, a dance phase slides in, very crafty and sly, the snap gets sharp. My favorite track is a soundtrack for men with guns on horses that are tough and mean looking, stallions with their electronic cowboys riding across the sunset horizon, “Muzyka Iz Vesterna” (3:16) brings danger and style. I love how the guitars twang so perfectly, echoey keyboards flow around as we keep riding hard and long like cowboys do, guitars of shimmering electricity, ignited by silhouetted horses thundering against the sky, mirages waving, bells of brass being shaken, melodic improvisations within the lines.

Keeping this jazzy musique concrete groove, freely improvised noise and a provocative flute, along side of clanking dripping ripping echoes, “Free Waltz” (2:52), casts free mystery grooves, maybe a little water dripping, with other odd noises included, welcome to the ambient jazz shadow showroom. “Faktura” (5:38) has a pulsing tempo with snappy clicks establishing the speed and mood, dreamy night flickering where electronic textures build, some repeating with new riffs, the almost chirpy bird things are descending, the feeling is dreamy and without stress or tension.

Underground sound, limitless motion ::

Let’s go “Rowing” (3:27), the track starts with an easy flowing pace, relaxing and odd, sounding like some electric birds are wandering amidst keyboard chimes, the boat rowing is slow moving, no rush, the rowing starts followed by a growing Yekaterinburg neotriphop accompaniment of steady rowing splashes and electronic sizzles and chirps, as we propel across the water steadily rowing, very constant, the beats fit into the physical activity, establishing a jazzy groove with a muttering man’s voice hidden in the noodles. I am thoroughly enjoying this mood piece. There is a house on the slope, “Dom Na Sklone” (3:26) within a very odd dreamy neighborhood. I hear floating little creatures exchanging rattling buzzing and creaking sounds. Clicky chattering like woodpecker robots scattered in differing densities of activity probing and gobbling, then returning to quietly snuffling some more.

“Where tape becomes instrument, Free Waltz casts free mystery grooves—jazzy musique concrète, dripping echoes, odd noises, and ambient shadows forming a deeply immersive world.” ~Robin B James

The atmosphere, “Atmozapaska” (3:17), is Earth’s protective layer of gases, held by gravity, essential for life as it provides air to breathe, blocks harmful solar radiation, traps heat to keep the planet warm, and creates weather. I hear frogs in a pond glowing and energized at night, a few busy electronic birds having a conversation or just a call-in session, where jazzy little rhythmic inventions come and go slowly passing along a quivery beat or shimmer pattern. Catch the swing on the roller coaster at the end of the track. I am walking through a long damp night tunnel, a rhythm emerges that feels easy going, a mist of tiny furious little bits that flow together giving a gentle easy sunrise glow that grows more complex, a keyboard arrives and joins, then starts building jazzy melodic noodles within those drifting little sounds, “Fabrika 2” (3:33). In the distance I hear slow carnival loops coming from behind the waterfall in the cave, “Metamorphosis (Ambient Version)” (5:12), is suggesting to me dreamy doves, loopy tones that cycle on and on, steadily endless. Things change, the music consistently sounds interesting, and the inclusion of archived field recordings definitely adds history into new audio art.

Andrey Kurokhtin is a versatile Russian electronic musician, producer, engineer, inventor and label owner from Yekaterinburg, known primarily as Shine Grooves, he releases music under aliases such as Quadrat, Unlight, and Rokton Ensemble, and collaborates on live experimental projects like X343 and Ryabina. Yekaterinburg is one of Russia’s most important economic centers and is located on the Iset River between the Volga-Ural region and Siberia.

Free Waltz is available on Artificial Owl Recordings. [Bandcamp]