Matryoshka is a somber, ethereal duo consisting of programmer Sen and vocalist Calu. They seem to be very heavily influenced by other precious bands like Mum and Sigur Ros. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found a resonance with fans in the Netherlands who helped bring them to the attention of the powers the be.
While the dark, washed out chords and gradually building piano lines might at first conjure up echos of the Icelandic shoegaze super group, Matryoshka does have their own style. (Although, having said that, "My Funeral Rehearsal" is almost note-for-note Sigur Ros fodder.) First off, being a duo with (apparently) a single, largely electronic music producer, their sound pallet is certainly different. Where Sigur Ros is solidly grounded in real-world instruments, Matryoshka instead beings a host of both frigidly cold soundscapes and more heavily processed glitches. Most songs are a mix of muffled beats and the aforementioned pianos and stings with various vocal twitters and sonic trickery. Others are a bit more experimental, like "Viridian," an exercise in massive synths and little else, something that wouldn't be entirely out of place buried deep on a Nine Inch Nails album.
That's not to say they are stark and lifeless however. Quite the opposite. Calu's melancholic and angelic singing style brings an almost Dead Can Dance feel to some songs, most notably the absolutely amazing "Evening Gleam Between Clouds." She sings in both a whispery falsetto and a lower, more mature register. It's almost as if two people inhabit her voice from one song to the next. Much like their Russian name (nesting dolls) and Polish album title Zatracenie ("doom"), the vocals also jump between languages, from Japanese to English, though with the ghostly presentation it's often tough to tell the difference.
While they do at times show signs of still being a rather young band (they formed in 2006) with limited resources ("Tyrant's Miniature Garden" is a fantastic song marred by synthetic strings and drums) they definitely have a very unique style that's ripe for many years of harvest yet to come. In fact they already have a second album in the works. You can listen to and download almost all of their songs directly from their official website, something else rather unique.
Live 2007
Official Site
MySpace
Members:
Sen - Programming
Calu - Vocals
Releases:
Zatracenie - 2007
Sink Into Sin
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