''Kołysanki'' (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

for "Lullabies") is the fifth studio album by Polish band

Lux Occulta Lux Occulta (which is Latin for "hidden light" or "the secrets of light") is a Polish avant-garde metal band, founded in late 1994. Their work, also strongly influenced by progressive metal and black metal, commonly incorporates elaborate arrange ...

. The album was released on March 13, 2014. It is the first album released by the band in 13 years, as well as the first since the ending of the band's hiatus, making it the longest gap between the band's albums.

Sound

''Kołysanki'' marks a drastic departure of the band's previous

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...

sound in favor of a more experimental

electronic rock Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrum ...

sound. A reviewer for the webzine ''

Metal Storm Metal Storm Limited was a research and development company based in Brisbane, Australia, that specialized in electronically initiated superposed load weapons technology and owned the proprietary rights to the electronic ballistics technology ...

'' described the album's opening track, "Dymy", as having a "heavy synth atmosphere, with very groovy beats and rhythms and vocals that dance between charismatic singing and interesting spoken word." He also praised the song "Samuel wraca do domu" for its "use of sax, double bass, and organ, that sounds more like a jazz piece from the early 1900s than anything else", as well as the song "Karawanem Fiat" for taking a "neoclassical approach with acoustic guitar work that would delight even the most seasoned of flamenco listeners." Thomas Bawden of ''Axis of Metal'' described the album as a "musical mindfuck", which feature "track titles in Polish and then prominently featuring electronically sampled French vocal lines", "violin melodies that could almost be described as neo-classical if they weren’t so dissonant, frequently set to a bombastic industrial backing beat", and "psychedelic guitar lines meandering back and forth amidst a nightmarish flurry of almost gypsy folk-inspired accordion lines", as well as jazz melodies that "lend the piece the atmosphere of a 1930s smoke-filled club."

Track listing

All lyrics written by Jarosław Szubrycht. All music composed by Jerzy Głód, except "Karawanem Fiat" composed by Jerzy Głód, Grzegorz Kapłon, and Piotr Szczurek.

Personnel

;Lux Occulta *Jarosław Szubrycht – lead vocals, lyrical concept, visual concept *Jerzy Głód –

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

, musical concept, mixing, production * Wacław Kiełtyka –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featu ...

, accordion *Maciek Tomczyk – rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar ;Additional musicians *Julia Doszna – vocals *Julie Cazalas – vocals *Catherine Fornal – vocals *Łukasz Madej –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

*Wojtek Krzak –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

*Władysław Grochot –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

*Tomasz Grochot –

cajón A cajón (; "box", "crate" or "drawer") is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front or rear faces (generally thin plywood) with the hands, fingers, or sometimes implements such as brushes, mallets, o ...

*Marek Tomczyk – classical guitar, mixing, mastering ;Production *Elżbieta Biryło – cover art *Łukasz Jaszak – graphic design *Igor Szubrycht – writing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolysanki 2014 albums Lux Occulta albums Polish-language albums French-language albums