A little over two years since we last presented the unique work of RITES OF FALL, we’re honored to give you a special insight into the newest dramatic opus from experimental artist Bartek Kuszewski. Enduring the emotional abyss with bleak, monumental tones, “Floodwaters” is a record that reveals more of its mystical poetry each time it’s listened to and is built upon an interesting concept, explained by Bartek himself:
“The creative challenge with the record was invoking a miniature, self-contained world where one witnesses its total destruction. Flood is one of the most deeply encoded myths – my goal was to project this symbolic imagery onto the listener’s psyche.”
Floodwaters
The title track was created by accumulating all these different parts of the arrangement. I decided that it’ll just end up as long as it needs to be early on in the process. Sometime near its completion, it was already over 10 minutes long and then I was considering splitting it into three shorter tracks – I resisted this and stuck to the initial idea. Floodwaters build up across different “waves” until it bursts into the final wall of sound.
It represents the flood itself, a destructive force, the state of mind when one faces circumstances totally out of control, without any alternative to total surrender.
Earth-Diver
Earth-Diver refers to the characters from various creation myths. Fallen from a higher plane of existence they form the world from the mud on the surface of the primal waters.
It started as a simple glitchy beat and piano demo, evolved in this form probably for 80% of the time until the very few last iterations when I turned the track on its head by adding the bass, synth arpeggios, and most of the drums.
Hydroclastic
Origins of this track date back to 2018. I started with the chord progression and imagined it blending into a wall of sound. I made one or two versions that were more traditionally ambient, but none of them resonated with me in the end. It took its current form when I recorded a freight train slowly starting to roll, standing right next to it, and used it to form a bassline.
From the narrative point of view – it’s the heat, the pressure that shapes the matter.
Vapor Ascending
I remember recording the main melody almost like automatic writing. I’ve just had it playing in my head after waking up one morning and went straight to the studio so that I wouldn’t lose it. This track was the easiest one to finish, but it took a lot of time to figure out how to conclude it.
Vapor Ascending suggests that the cycle of obliteration and creation will repeat again – it’s a closed-loop.
