Kravchenko Clees "FACES" | Album Release Concert

From poems and metaphors, Kateryna Kravchenko and Arthur Clees together develop fragile, fleeting sonic structures with voice and vibraphone. Delicate melodies and shadings unfold like the petals of a flower. Driven by their shared search for identity, they explore their innermost selves and the world around them. Pure, crystal clear, and without a safety net. The Kravchenko Clees duo carries traditions into the present and in doing so releases emotions, associations, and layers of meaning.

The debut album of the Kravchenko-Clees duo impresses with its open clarity. The distinctive instrumentation of voice and vibraphone opens up unexplored terrain. "Faces" confronts with freedom, intimacy, and meticulous attention to detail. Special space is given to the musical settings of poems by Ukrainian poet and activist Vasyl Stus, whose decisive texts align well with the duo's integral, luminous atmospheres.

Vibraphone and voice nestle against each other like comfortingly soft cat paws. Both instruments fit together very well through their similar range and their immediacy. The duo skillfully resists the lurking kitsch of the vibraphone and expands its instrumentation in places to include church organ. The album is released on Unit Records, produced by Wanja Slavin.