Kisu Min’s new album “Rudolf Steiner House,” out September 29 through Antena Krzyku, is built on a clear tension: how to preserve humanity in a time that feels increasingly divided and radicalized.
The band, formed in Łódź in 2016 and known for weaving political and social engagement into their music, chose the London house of Rudolf Steiner—the founder of Waldorf pedagogy—as a symbolic point of reference. “We feel that Waldorf pedagogy, and the wisdom obtained from it in terms of educating future generations, is a guarantee for the preservation of our humanity in these extremely uncertain times,” the group explains.
The record stretches between the personal and the political, testing the edges of alternative rock with a mix of improvisational songwriting and sharper, more deliberate commentary. War, exile, emancipation, environmental collapse, pharmaceutical cynicism, and the interference of AI all come into view across its twelve songs.
“We deeply take care of our Mother Earth and we’re always seeking of new ways to ease her,” the band says about “G.A.I.A.,” but they don’t shy away from showing contradictions and human limits. “We’re trying, but we are also humans that make mistakes.”
Several tracks deal directly with conflict and displacement. “Nothing But The Heart” was written with refugees from Ukraine in mind, aiming to lift spirits through archetypal emotion, while “Doomsday” turns inward to confront fear, insecurity, and low self-esteem within new relationships. Elsewhere, cultural and literary references are stitched into the fabric: “L.A. Noir” traces Joan Didion’s tragedies with a line like “The Center will not hold, Salvador in blood,” while the title track responds to the encounter with Steiner’s work in London, reflecting on education and a longing for cultural growth.
The band’s willingness to position itself within contemporary struggles is especially clear in “Uncanny Valley,” their fastest, most guitar-driven track. Inspired by John Carpenter’s “They Live,” the song is paired with a video built from photo-based animation. “AI is increasingly entering our lives, and humans become more and more primitive, regressive and closed-minded. Wake up, before it’s too late,” they warn. The title itself points to the disturbing in-betweenness of things that appear human but are not, a metaphor they use to frame the dehumanization of modern times.
Even lighter-leaning tracks keep a sharp edge. “Rainbow Dash” talks of overdosing on the rainbow as a counter to growing darkness, while “Not Your Girl” flips Pixies-inspired irony into a reminder of rock’s long-standing place with women. “Priestess Of My Own” takes on emancipation and solitude with thick, chorus-heavy layering, while “RLS” pulls no punches in calling out Big Pharma, describing Restless Leg Syndrome as an invention to sell drugs.
The closing cut “Woland” broadens the scope further, pulling in a contribution from Daniel R. Ball of Leveller and leaving listeners with the chorus line: “Today we won’t see the light.”
“Rudolf Steiner House” threads these themes into a single body of work—alternating between intimacy, rage, irony, and reflection, but always looking at fractures in the world and how they echo in personal lives. Below, you can dive into the full track-by-track commentary from the band.
Je Suis
From the beginning this song had kind of french vibe, so we decided to wrote the lyrics in the language that Mylene Farmer (which we love and listen) use on the daily basis. The song is very impressional so it exposes ethereality of the piece. Most of our songs was made out of improvisation during the rehearsals, and Je Suis is also the case. We are especially proud of the vocal parts in this song. Because of it’s catchy main theme we chose it to be the first released single. We also made a music video for this song, that we rolled in Ola’s apartment and we had a lot o fun shooting it.
G.A.I.A. (to Thoughts of Mother Earth)
We deeply take care of our Mother Earth and we’re always seeking of new ways to ease her. We know how many filthy people use it to their infamous goals. That’s what this song is about. On the other hand we try to show that we also have a reflection and we can say “we’re trying, but we are also humans that makes mistakes”. As you can hear, this song give vent to a lot of emotions- from rage to the feeling of guilt. There are also some intentional references to 90’s music, for those whoever wants, will discover it.
Nothing But The Heart
A ballad somewhat reminiscent of 80’s-90’s U2. We hope we have managed to capture the basic, archetypal emotions. Lyrics refers to the war in Ukraine and was written to lift the spirits of refugees who have to find their place in a foreign country. We’re also shooting a music video for this song about the relationship of the Polish- Ukrainian couple.
Rudolf Steiner House
(Michał) When I was visiting my friends in London, I passed a building that really intrigued me. It was Rudolf Steiner House. I myself am strongly connected to Waldorf education, so Steiner is a figure very close to my heart. Then, during rehearsals a new song was created, and somehow I felt sorry that there is so much in London, while here in Poland there is so little (in a sense cultural development and opportunities). So I wrote the lyrics where the verses are impressionistic, referring to Steiner’s views on education, but the chorus is a voice of some strange longing for something difficult to express.
Musically, we are especially proud of the bridge in the song. During recording in the studio, we added some ethnical drums, which further emphasize the mystery of the song.
Lullaby
Nice twist at the end of the song. The bass lines are inspired by the Interpol band. If you know the feeling of going somewhere by tram early in the morning, late autumn, raining- that’s how this lyrics was written.
Rainbow Dash
A lot of 80’s vibes, a little bit new wave kind of track. The bass lines were inspired by Peter Hook. This was probably the first song that we finished for the album. In this song, we sing that we want to overdose the rainbow. This is our response to an increasing darkness in our world.
Not Your Girl
This is our tribute to Pixes- the band we truly love. We like the unhurried tempo of this song and the ironic guitars talking to each other in it. Rock ‘n’ roll belong to the girls for the long time now, and that’s what this song is about.
L.A. Noir
(Michał) Noir is a genre that Joan Didion liked very much. This song is about her. I’ve read “Blue Nights” and I was fascinated by her. All of her personal tragedies resonate in this lyrics. We created a little biography of Joan in this song. I especially like one verse from it : ” The Center will not hold, Salvador in blood”. Besides… the track has a nice pulse and sweet, melodic breaks before each chorus.
Priestess Of My Own
The songs touches the subject of emancipation. It discusses loneliness, tough choices and emotions. In this song Basia sings: “I’m the girl with Janus face”. The face that cries and laughs at the same time. It’s a track that has it’s own drive with thick and wide choruses that we use: Basia- TC Electronic June-60, Ola- Boss Super Chorus and Michał- Boss CE-2W. We also like all the flaws that we deliberately left in the recording. Remember that the entire album was recorded live, tracking everyone at once.
RLS
The unofficial title of this song was “One More Night” and in fact it sounds a little bit like Phil Collins ballad. RLS, or Restless Leg Syndrome, is a disease artificially created by pharmaceutical companies only for the purpose of selling more drugs… The song is a kind of protest song against Big Pharma.
Uncanny Valley
The fastest and most guitar-driven track on the album. Driven by Ola’s killer riff and Agata’s extremely fast hi-hats. We made a music video for this song inspired by John Carpenter’s film “They Live.” The image is still very relevant and fits perfectly to the lyrics. AI is increasingly entering our lives. and humans become more and more primitive, regressive and closed- minded. Wake up, before it’s too late!
Doomsday
(Michał) This is probably the only song on the album that I wrote at home as an acoustic guitar ballad. I expressed all my fears about starting a new relationship in the song. If you have low self-esteem, you are afraid that the person you care about will leave you anyway, and you look everywhere for evidence to prove it. It’s worth facing it. Go to therapy, believe in yourself. Musically, it turned out to be a very “heavy”, powerful song, a bit not Kisu Min like, but we like it and play it at almost every concert.
Woland
Originally, this is a song from another project created by Ola (Bald Cats). Michał liked it so much that he persuaded the rest of us to make a Kisu Min version. It turned out to be more gothic than the original. There’s a cool, dark keyboard part and chorus lyrics that really stick the fork in it: “Today we won’t see the light”. We are living in the pre-war era and anything can happen… The guest appearance on the track is made by Daniel R. Ball from the band Leveller. We loved his songs, so we asked him to feature on the track and he agreed. And it turned out great.
Be sure to check out our previous feature with KISU MIN and their list of standout names from Poland’s underground including LOVEWORMS, STEVE MARTINS, BLACK MYNAH, TEKLA GOLDMAN, IVO SHANDOR & THE GOZER WORSHIPERS, IZZY AND THE BLACK TREES, DORIAN’S STEAMING SHADOW, and ONLY MESS.
