Polish instrumental post rockers TRANSMISSION ZERO explore the kinds of thoughtfully constructed soundscapes, immersive atmospherics, and explosive crescendos pioneered by kindred artists like This Will Destroy You, pg.lost, and If These Trees Could Talk. Their upcoming new album “Bridges” was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Maciej Karbowski of Tides From Nebula at Nebula Studio in Warsaw, and will be self-released on September 24th. Today, we’re thrilled to give you their spine-tingling track “Still No Sign”, along with the band’s special commentary about their craft.
“Still No Sign” marks the first single promoting Transmission Zero’s sophomore album called “Bridges”, to be released on September 24th, 2021. It’s accompanied by a music video made by Maciej Antosiewicz. You can view it above.
Transmission Zero is: Jacek Zięba – guitar, Krzysztof Rutka – bass, synths, Sebastian Zimowski – drums
The initial ideas for this track came at the beginning of the pandemic, when Jacek was working from home, playing guitar during breaks. At the beginning it was supposed to be a part of another track on the album, called “In Case of Emergency”, but it quickly evolved into its own thing. The final effect perfectly illustrates the album’s rich textures, immersive, cinematic atmospherics, and proves the trio to be songwriters with a flair for hooks and epic compositions.
“After putting some finishing touches and adding synthesizers, we were so happy with the results, we decided to release it as a first single.” – says the band.
“My initial inspiration for this track was the ocean, how it moves, and how peaceful and powerful it is. Musically I was also inspired in some ways by the latest Pillars album and the music of Hanz Zimmer. The classic combination of water, space, post-rock and movie scores. With those elements we were able to create our own sonic illustration and history.” – Jacek
The track tackles the subject of anticipating upcoming events, getting prepared for them and waiting for something to finally happen.
“It’s about waiting for “the sign”, not really knowing what it will be, idealizing it and sometimes paying too much attention to that big thing, that we’re not even sure is there.” – comments the band. “In the end it’s also about the value of being on the journey, not knowing what’s on the other side and the pure excitement of enjoying the process and “the road” without focusing on end results.”
“That being said, although we do have some images and feelings in mind when creating our songs, we always like to keep them in the background and encourage the listener to find her or his own meanings and interpretations. That’s what instrumental music and post-rock is all about for us – finding yourself in those sounds and using them as a soundtrack to how you feel.” – Krzysztof
Transmission Zero started in summer 2016 when two founders, guitarist Jacek Zięba and bassist Krzysztof Rutka decided to go away to the countryside and work on new music together. They actually met a year before when Jacek was playing in a now defunct post-rock band called We Stay for Tomorrow and Krzysztof was looking for a way back to playing music after years of hiatus. Something instantly clicked between them and for some time Krzysztof helped around with WSFT, even playing synths on one of their gigs, supporting Spoiwo in Piękny Pies club in Kraków.
When they finally decided to do something together, they packed all the gear and spent a week in a country house not far from Wrocław. During those sessions they created the track “Lost and Found” that ended up on Transmission Zero’s debut album, and a few others which eventually didn’t make the cut.
After they had returned to Kraków, hyped by the possibilities, they found a drummer, Mikołaj Rodzaj, and started working on full arrangements. By the end of 2016 Jacek decided to leave his previous band and focus entirely on Transmission Zero.
The first gig they ever played as Transmission Zero was on February 6th, 2017, supporting UK post-rock band Blanket on their European tour. Later that year they also shared stage with Set and Setting (US, Florida), Lost in Kiev (France), Nordic Giants (UK) and Signal from Europa (PL), showing that although new to the scene they already have something to offer.
“At this point, feeling pretty good about our material, we messaged every post-music related gig in Poland asking if we can play a support. It was like shooting in the dark, but after a few gigs it gave us a lot of confidence that we’re doing something right and we should continue to do so, so it was definitely worth it.” – Krzysztof
At the end of 2017, due to some personal issues the band had to part ways with their original drummer, and was joined a few months later by Sebastian Zimowski who brought in an amazing energy that helped define the sound of Transmission Zero that we know today. Feeling good about the new line- up, in 2018 the band decided to focus on putting finishing touches on their songs and finally recording the debut album everyone asked about. They chose to do so in the incredible Nebula Studio, known for its creators, Maciek Karbowski and Tomasz Stołowski, members of acclaimed Polish post-rock band Tides from Nebula.
“The session was crazy, not knowing a lot about professional studio recording, and with a limited budget of a beginner band, we only booked three days. You can imagine the expressions on our faces when it turned out that setting up a drum kit takes almost one whole day:) But we made it, and we’re very happy and proud of what we were able to create.” – Krzysztof
After three exhaustive days at the Nebula Studio at the end of 2018, weeks of mixing and mastering, and all the work around making a DIY release, Transmission Zero’s debut, self-titled album was released on June 25th, 2019.
The album was very well received, with over 100k views on YouTube to date, ending up on multiple post-rock related albums of the year lists and Spotify playlists (WherePostRockDwells, Post-Rock Community, De Mist, Voltage Post-Rock).
In the meantime the band continued to play live, gigging with Besides (PL), Sounds Like the End of the World (PL), Ayden (PL) and their rehearsal space buddies from Yenisei (PL). This of course was put on hold in early 2020, which gave them time to take a short break and start working on the new material for the second full-length release.
Watch the band’s mid-2020 live session recorded in Cracow Music Scene Studio and see some more photos documenting the show, as well their recent studio session below:
Photo by Krzysztof Rutka
