Kotra & Zavoloka – Silence

kotra-zavoloka_silenceok

7″ one sided – Kvitnu

If choosing to remain silent is also a linguistic act, Then the greeting that Kotra and Zavoloka address to their audience as the last act before the closure of the label Kvitnu is especially poignant: an intense and quintessential gesture. Silence in music is everything, it is the basis of all acoustic transmutation, the zero point from which vibrations and sounds then propagate, something that is always present, that must not be found or created. Silence is an inner condition. Silence will be the last vinyl produced by Kvitnu and it is designed with a single silent ring cut, exactly in the center of the white one-sided 7″ record. Kvitnu, founded in 2006 in Kiev, Ukraine, by Dmytro Fedorenko, better known as Kotra, has been able to count from the beginning on the support of Zavoloka, who in addition to being a talented musician, has managed the visual aspect of the label. This is a brand that boasts releases from legends such as Pan Sonic, high calibre composers such as Vitor Joaquim, Muslimgauze, Matter and Andrea Gastaldello, as well as certain eclectic and non-mainstream groups such as Plaster, Sturqen and Redukt. It is Zavoloka herself who announced the end of the label, explaining that it’s not possible to avoid ongoing changes and that “the role of a label as a mediator between listener and producer is changing drastically, giving life to something new.” With 14 years of activity and more than 70 releases, Kvitnu has certainly written a very special page in the history of experimental music and will also be remembered for their theatrical releases, exactly in sync with what was a rather immaterial, refined and conceptual approach. Cage said that “silence does not exist” and even in an anechoic chamber you can still hear something. There is always something happening to produce sounds. It’s the same here, where the simple minimal movement of the needle creates an imperceptible rustle and the cyclic nature of a ring recording makes the execution theoretically endless. But sooner or later everything ends, even good projects. A new beginning will perhaps see the duo concentrating more on their own musical productions or on developing new performance formats. “What is the best time for a radical change if not during such a great turmoil that we are all experiencing right now?” The future for now is silent, unpredictable.

 

Kotra & Zavoloka – Silence