'Filament' streaming now and available on tape & vinyl

Press quotes:

'Filament is a splendiferous gatefold LP that looks and sounds fantastic. Mytrip have grown exponentially since the “Empty” 7"...' ~ Tiny Mix Tapes 

'These are drones that do not simply expand into the abyss they are the abyss.' ~ Beach Sloth 

'...un intricato labirinto fatto di droni densi e oscuri da cui emergono oblique linee melodiche scandite da partiture ritmiche irregolari.' ~ SoWhat  

'Filament provides totally raw and cathartic psychical sounds that were nevertheless layered with sensitivity and caution.' ~ Foreign Accents

'Experimental bleak joy with a touch of industrial richness.' ~ KZSU Zookeper Online 

'We hear colors... earthly, warm colors, no matter the harsh intensity in some of the pieces.' ~ Against The Odds  

'Mytrip combines a wealth of range driven Dark Ambient and drones with field recordings and attention to pitch black resonance.' ~ Black Audio  

'Ciò che emerge nettamente dal lavoro in esame è la crescita qualitativa e la maggior ricchezza di soluzioni messe in atto dall'act bulgaro...' ~ Dark Room  

'...looking outside dawn slowly setting and daylight fading, Mytrip plays some music for such sceneries.' ~ Vital Weekly 

'Ο Βούλγαρος Mytrip στο τελευταίο του άλμπουμ εκφράζει αυτόν το ζόφο που έχει απλωθεί σε όλα τα Βαλκάνια...' ~ against the silence 

'It’s cold, often apocalyptic, but not devoid of a specific kind of beauty, a beauty of natural, cosmic provenance.' ~ Santa Sangre 

'This is a droning heavy weight for the understanding few. The world separated and moving as far away as possible.' ~ lost in a sea of sound

'... a sound that defies easy categorisation.' ~ Noise Receptor 

'Filament' promo shows in Bulgaria

My new album as Mytrip is out on 12" LP, tape & digital.

Playing two shows this week to celebrate it.

Club Void, Plovdiv

Club *Mixtape 5*, B-Side, Sofia

Mytrip - Adaptive (video)

'Adaptive' is the first video from my new Mytrip full-length album 'Filament'.

Out via Amek on 12" vinyl, cassette & digital.

Pre-orders are up on http://mytrip.bandcamp.com.

Distributed by:
Minor Label (DE)
Stashed Goods (UK)

Video by Silvana Ilieva.

Mytrip - Filament- Pre-Orders Oct 17

'Filament' is the title of my new full-length album as Mytrip, out on 12" vinyl, tape and digital via Amek. 

Pre-orders start on Oct 17.

Artwork by Silvana Ilieva.

The Industrial Temple

The Industrial Temple is a multidisciplinary project by Lyubomir Krastev. It'll be shown today & tomorrow during Нощ/Пловдив - Night/Plovdiv 2016. I had the chance to design a massive post-industrial soundscape for the exhibition.

RSVP: Ателие Любомир Кръстев. The Industrial Temple- вернисаж

21/09

Sept 21 - Trysth, Feedbacker, Ivan Shopov & Leaver

Mixtape 5, B-Side

Sofia, Bulgaria

Mytrip & ate - Tour 2016 - Bydgoszcz & Warsawa

19/08 The garden of bass in MÓZG, Bydgoszcz

After a quick coffee, humus sandwiches and cat times in Veronica's place we head to the Katowice to catch our train. Six hours pass fairly slow but we get to Bydgoszcz with no trouble. The weather is ace, and after a quick train ride we arrive at MÓZG. Our host Jakub is already there so we get straight to soundcheck. We were supposed to do an open air show but the club crew has decided to do it inside so we can be as loud as we want. And damn we're loud. MÓZG has a massive PA and everything sounds awesome. It seems we're up for a good night! After the check we wander a bit inside the club, a cult place founded in 1994 by Jakub's father - Slawek Janicki quite an important figure in Poland's jazz (and underground) scene. Here's more on him here. First thing I sense in the otherwise dark club is a strong scent of flowers and Jakub tells us they have a garden on the rooftop and even plans to bring few plants and arrange the around the speakers.

After the check is done me and Petar go for a walk around the city. In an hour and a half we come back well-fed and ready to play. The room where we're playing looks awesome, plants are all over there are chairs and a small blanket so people can lay on the floor. In a bit Petar starts and the sound is great you can hear all layers of his loops, his bows are cutting through the mix like knife cuts fucking butter. It's great and people seem to love it. After that it's my turn and I blast the place with full volume. Bass is all around me and on several moments I'm almost losing myself in the sound and visuals. The rooms is pretty full, everybody's quiet during both our sets and when we finish I have no clue where I am.

We chill in the venue and luckily manage to listen to Jakub performing live a short but very interesting and thick techno set. We are staying the night in a cosy room in the venue so after hanging around a bit more it's time for shower and sleep.

20/08 Warsaw, let's do that!

We can't get tix for the early Polski Bus so we are to get on that at 1 pm, which means time for a breakfast and coffee in Bydgoszcz. We hit the zapjekanki spot again and head on a hunt for a small coffee shop in the tiny streets and we manage to find one called Cafe Kino. Loving the place in Bristol with the same name I immediately go for it and it's all good nice coffee and an hour passes chilling out. Around 12 we are back to the room, grab our stuff and we head to the bus station. Four hours later we are in Warsaw. Already a bit late for the event we get to Ada Pulawska around 8 but Martyna, who is our host but is also performing tonight is about to soundcheck with Darek and Piotr. 

A bit later they start the gig and are playing a noise/eai set before us and end it with massive feedback. I thought it was planned and had a blast, later they are telling me it's not exactly what they had in mind. What can you do, that's the beauty of noise music. Tonight I'm playing before Petar because I sense it will do the gig good if we don't go from mellow to heavy but vice versa and it really works out fine. I have just a tiny bit of noise from the charger so I skip the quiet parts of my set but blast only the meanest sounds. The room is crammed with people. I think it's our most attended show. Everybody looks deep in the sound, sitting on the floor and towards the end of my final piece I leave the stage and join the people sitting on the floor, enjoying my final chords on this tour.

After a short pause Petar is on. It's insane how I've been listening to his set for 6 days in a row and every night I find new details in it. All the time I feel both happy we managed to do these gigs but a bit sad that tomorrow we won't be playing again. Luckily, Amek is releasing his debut tape so my trip with ate is not over yet.

After the gig we hang out with Martyna, who shows us around Ada Pulawska. I haven't been to a proper squat in quite some time so it feels awesome. We grab a quick bite and head downstairs again where the next hour I chat with my homie Tekla from cetieu who has managed to come to the gig so we finally meet outside the Internet. Around 12 the squat is closing and its sleeping time.

Now I'm finishing this report in the plane. Petar is still one hour away from his bus to Gdansk and I'm one hour away from Sofia. Looking back at the past week it surely was a tough one, but despite all issues we managed to play each and every gig. Big ups to everybody who did a show for us, who hosted us in their homes and let us play with their cats, huge ups to Ola for saving our asses, when both shows in Lodz got cancelled. Thanks to Gosia for lending me her laptop charger (and designing Petar's tape artwork). Last but not least huge ups for Petar himself for being a top dude and touring mate, we are surely doing this again!

PS. Keep your fingers crossed that the good boys at Apple can save the remains of my HDD because all music I've ever done is on this computer with no backup whatsoever.

Mytrip & ate - Tour 2016 - Lodz & Bytom

08/16 Shit going down in Lodz

So after arriving to Lodz with the news both our shows got cancelled we managed to replace the second one thanks to Ola and the good dudes at Williamsburg and we thought ok that's better. However, that was yesterday. With a second day off more shit was about to go down. We spent most of the day playing music catching up on messages and went for a walk around the city, which after the Monday desolation (Christian holiday) was now way more lively, even looked nice. So after quite a wandering we got back to the flat and ordered the hugest pizza in the universe. All pizzas had sweet satanic titles so we went for Lucifer's Diet and the Cheese Ghost and man it was massive. Thankfully Agnieszka (the mother of cats) was home so she gave us a hand defeating the pizza. After we finished with it, barely alive I took the MacBook and it showed the first signs of what was about to happen. Well, it died, it spent the night trying to repair itself but it seems the hdd was fucked so I was supposed to forget about using it.

Now what? 

1708 More shit going down in Lodz

It's show day today so I sit on Petar's laptop, whose charger is barely alive, luckily Gosia is using a similar one so one problem less we think. I manage to put together a very basic Ableton Lite setup for tonight and hope for the best. Loaded up with tha remains of the pizza and coffee we jump on a Uber and head to the venue. This time the driver doesn't hate the fucking French. 

In the venue my fears of when using a Windows pc come true and there's a lot of noise in the PA from the charger. The computer also can't handle my controllers so I give up on them too. After the longest hour in my life experimenting with interfaces, cables, USB ports and resets we manage to find a socket that is grounded and no electricity noise in the sound. It seems we're good to go.

We play for a few people, the sound is okay having in mind all the pressure so we manage to pull this one somehow. I can't wait to be back home. We get there, spend some time talking with Agniezska, but she has a train to catch in the morning so shortly we all go to sleep. 

Oh did I mention one of the knobs of the Beatstep also got fucked up. Fun times for my gear.

18/08 Cats and no subs from Lodz to Bytom

In the morning we finally meet the cats living next door and they are awesome and huge. We feed them and hit the road to the train station. Four hours and two trains later we arrive in Bytom. Victoria and her friends are already waiting for us on the station. Been wanting to see Wolne Tory since last April when our gig got cancelled last minute so here we are finally. There is a very nice sunset scenery with 4 punk kids walking towards it, but caring all the gear we don't bother to shoot it with Petar's Zenith. Good thing we'll probably remember it for quite a long time.

The place is awesome, sensing food being cooked we start setting up and boom more issues. First it seems one of my cables has died. Then we can't seem to find a way to get sound from the subs which cripples our music a lot and having to play with a limited amount of samples I can't come up with a quieter set. So we put some pressure on the tops, kill the low cut filters and squeeze all the bass they have and it works. We eat awesome local vegan stuff and we're good to go. 

Petar starts and despite all issues his set grows great, however, shortly after his second piece the power of his looper gets detached and he's forced to call it a night. He's now officially in the club of 'shit getting fucked up on tour'. It's my turn, I play a bit more ambient stuff and skip the

most aggressive tracks and it's fine. After the show we get to Victoria's place where we meet her two cats which are super lovely and we'll be carrying remains of their fur long after the tour is finished that's for sure. Shutting down time now.

Tomorrow a six hour train ride to Bysgoszcz is upon us.

Mytrip & ate - Tour 2016 - Gdansk, Torun & a bit of Lodz

After a great show at Varna's Radar Festival, where we play the Mytrip & RosettaStone A/V collab it's high time I get this tour in Poland with ate, that has been in the works since last December I guess. What happened on Aug 12 I described very well on twitter so I'll just leave it below and tell the rest.

So yesterday I woke up in Varna, took a plane from Sofia, landed in Warsaw now I've just opened my eyes in Gdansk. 😶

— Angel S. (@angelxgodfree) August 13, 2016

13/08 Gdansk, solidarity and burgers 

After sleeping almost until noon I go for a walk with Petar and Ola (we don't know yet she's our brand new tour manager). We hit Avocado, a nice vegan place just round the corner and I feast on a massive burger. I drink coffee for the first time in about a week and it's awesome to be back in the game. Touring season has officially started. After a quick chat and meal Ola runs to do some errands and me and Petar go to explore the old city of Gdansk which's crammed with tourists but still looks nice. We get to Gdansk Stocznia - a key place for the history of Poland (and the world I guess), now a museum located in a giant rust worshipping building. We check it out, then go for a bit more sight seeing and we head home to chill a bit before the show. 

Around 5:30 Michael, who's in charge of the In Progress experimental concert series and 1/2  of Zoharum, comes to pick us up. We shortly arrive at CSW Laznia and the place is great, right next to the room where we're playing there's a great exhibition, which I secretly take photos of. A quick soundcheck, a bit of fight with the visuals and we're good to go. People show up, including homies from Bulgaria, outside it starts raining so we're good to go. Petar plays a nice set, which kind of brings me back in my drone garden in Sofia. So somewhere in between nostalgia, melancholy and satisfaction I'm in fucking Gdansk starting a tour I start. I'm playing this set for the first time and even there are some issues with the screen behind me I'm totally brain dead in the end, people seem to enjoy it so I guess it was ok. We pack and head home, where Petar's friends bring me another veggie burger and I'm officially in heaven now. Shut down. 

Dropping them mean drones in Laznia, Gdansk. Photo by Petar.

14/08 Torun, planeta Kebab, apple juice shots and flying spoons

Today it totally feels like we're on tour because we almost miss our bus. A Uber driver fucks us up, but hopefully another one comes just on time, drives like a king, while sharing he 'hates the fucking French' and drops us 2 minutes before the bus leaves. It's a chill travel and we're in Torun in no time. The hostel where we're staying is 5 minutes from the station so we leave our stuff and go on a falafel hunt. No Kebabistan, but Planeta Kebab does the job pretty well, falafel season is officially open on the tour now. It's coffee time now and a cute lady from Bike Coffee provides! We spend the next few hours chilling at the river and besides the fact it's sunny as in hell it's awesome.

Torun

It's almost time to head to Kulturhauz so we stop by the hostel, grab our gear and head to the place. And it's awesome. I've been seeing a lot of friends and people I know playing Kulturhauz so it's great to be finally there. Everything with the check goes smoothly, the people from the crew bring a bigass beamer so our visuals are all over the place and soon it's pretty packed and Petar starts the night. He plays an even better set than yesterday, I really get into it and it seems the crowd enjoys it too. My set also goes smoother and it's party time. People at the venue, led by our awesome host Kasia on the bar are already quite far in the drinking game, so Petar has no choice but to join for a few beers. I'm provided with lemonade and later on with apple juice shots so I can join the toasts. Everybody's super nice, we go in the garden where we spent an hour chatting about music and whatnot with some cool folks who haven't yet left the place (as it's Sunday today). I'll spare you the details, but let's say the night ended with flying spoons, forks and straws. Polish people know how to party, on Sundays as well. We get our stuff, happily sold a bit of records and we head to the hostel. Sleeping is the best.

Petar bowing the guitar as if there's no tomorrow

The next morning starts with a great breakfast at the hostel, loaded to the top with coffee we head to the train station and after a two-hour long ride in a crammed train, sitting on the floor we're in Lodz for our only day off. We get to Gosia, who designed Petar's tape artwork and was kind enough to let us stay in her flat, to be greeted by the news both our shows in Muzeum Książki Artystycznej are cancelled. 

Yes, it's been only two days, but we're really on tour. 

Mytrip & ate - August 2016 - Poland Tour

August 2016

Mytrip & ate

8 days, 7 shows

Poland

Aug 11 - Radar Festival, Varna

Busy August starts with Radar Festival in Varna, Bulgaria.

Mytrip (harsh ambient live set) & RosettaStone (live visuals) A/V collab

We've done this only once so far. Gonna be emotional.

We're playing on Aug 11. 

RSVP: https://facebook.com/events/1738852083041503/

Mytrip & RosettaStone (photo by HRB.)

Dayin live improv @ Sofia Drone Day 28/05/16

Two portable synths, reverb and delay. One mono out.

 

All videos from the first Drone Day in Sofia find here.

Mytrip live radio session @ Subfactor 15/05/16

A full-recording of my live session for Subfactor on Bulgarian National Radio's Binar stream. The first hour we talk and listen to neat tunes, then we swim in 50 minutes of Mytrip drones.

Ræppen & Leaver Tour 2016 - Cambridge, Bristol & back home

Yet some more weird times, for a change in Cambridge 

07/06/16 Screaming for the elderly folks of Cambridge

So today is another strange gig for Leaver, because we're joining Tim in a show where he's playing blues stuff alongside a Cambridge based funk / reggae / ska band. After a great and scenery drive from Brighton (we didn't take the highway thankfully) we're in Cambridge and have plenty of time to wander around. Daniel goes for the tourist thing me and Tim hang out at the Aaahh Real Records surrounded by label boss' Ian crazy lego collection. After a quick coffee we're heading to the venue, where the local band is already doing something between a soundcheck and a band practice so we have some time to kill. Daniel is coming back with some friends of his, both Evgenia and Nate are cool so it's nice they join us for a walk around.

Once we're back from wandering around the canal and the park nearby we do our thing and around 9 pm it's show time. Tonight is certainly not our night even if we play ok. It's just the people who're obviously here to see their friends play some happy music. As you can guess most of the audience decides to fuck off right after the band so Tim plays in front of fewer people but it's as usual an awesome fun times. Once we're finished we quickly pack and head back to Ian's place where we chat for a bit and then zzzzzzZzzzzz. 

Myth's drum machines and bananas in Cafe Kino, Bristol

07/08/16 Last show in Bristol

By a crazy chance our Bristol promoter and friend James, who happens to also open our last show is in Cambridge. So after a nice breakfast and coffee we head to find him and we're on our way to Bristol. It's a pretty long ride, but we get to Bristol around 5, kinda just in time to set all our stuff in the gig room of the superb Cafe Kino. There's a piano there so tonight we're starting the set with the intro Stoimen Stoyanov played for the album (an intro I slightly mess up few hours later, but people said it felt more real, good to know). So after a quick soundcheck we get upstairs for dinner and damn that's tasty. I go for falafels and awesome cherry cola and it's pretty much the best meal I had outside Tim's place on this tour. It's just proper so we're pumped and ready to play our last gig. It starts around 8:30, sadly not too many folks show up, cus there's another huge event just round the corner, but the vibe is cool so both us and Ræppen enjoy it. What's ahead is a 2 hour drive back to London, 1 hour of sleep then few trains and a plane to Sofia.

Tour is officially over now.

Big ups to Tim for making this happen, big ups to everybody who booked us a gig, scored some merch or just showed up. We are now home.

Stream the album:



And help us get rid of the tour merch leftovers: leaverdrone.bandcamp.com

Ræppen & Leaver Tour 2016 - Birmingham, Brighton, Chatham

04/05/16 Black Sabbatch riffs and loud PAs in Birmingham

We get to Birmingham and it's a chill ride or at least it looks like that cus I think I spent it sleeping, oh what a surprise. The venue's placed in an industrial part of an industrial city and it's pretty nice. Alicja who's running Centrala, a space for (but not limited to) Eastern European culture and arts, is already there so we're in for a quick chat. It seems she's from my favorite town in Poland, mighty kingdom of falafels - Poznan. We set up the sound in no time, we do soundcheck, Tim even records his one because it sounds pretty nice and we head for a walk. An hour and a bag of chips later we're back. It doesn't look as if it'll be a pretty busy night so we wait for bunch of people to gather and we start. Tim's doing Ræppen tonight and it sounds massive through the PA, I still think his favorite set for the tour. We go shortly after him and we surely do play our best live so far. I guess the Centrala ambience does the job cus everything sounds and feels nice. After the show Richard, who's the other person running Centrala takes us to their place. We talk for few hours, eat great pizza and a traditional Polish meal, which Alicja has prepared for us and it's awesome. It's sleeping times, and that's the best. Tomorrow we're leaving the house at 9 which is super fine cus we'll have a plenty of time to explore Brighton. In the morning we're meeting their kid Iwo and his fluffy dachshund, with a complex name I can't seem to remember. He's a cute dude with an attitude, just like his parents.

05/05/16 NEVER LEAVING BRIGHTON

It's around noon and we're already in Brighton. I've been waiting for this moment for two years, because that place is magic. This time however, we catch all the tourist experience since last time we arrived pretty late and the whole city was already asleep. Now it's pretty full, stores are open, people are everywhere and after we stop the car at The Green Door Store and Tim and Daniel grab a quick bite we head to the beach where we spend the next two hours. Hanging out at the sea is the best, we do something between napping, chilling, nothing, whatever and we're back to the venue for soundcheck. The Green Door Store sounds amazing as usual and it doesn't take us long to do our stuff. Still plenty of time before the show starts so we fool around, drink Dr. Peppers, eat some more chips (some of us go for cheese & chips, not mentioning names) and it's show time.

Broken Star play some oldschool electronics with mostly ebowed and heavily effected guitar, they sound pretty good, and surely have good moments. After then we're on for a blended set because our friend Geoff, who's in charge of the Spirit of Gravity event series thought we're playing a collab set, however we cut our set a bit shorter to leave Tim summon the Sami spirits once again and it works pretty good as the sound is massive and let the music feel as it's supposed to feel. I might have get off the stage to scream among the audience, who knows. Tim does few very interesting passages during his set playing with stones he picked at the beach which gives a very nice touch and sense to the whole set. After us are SQ feat KET from Sweden. They have a very interesting sound, with modulated vocal samples and minimalist soundscapes, over which are placed glitched and loud sounds triggered via Wii controllers. A pretty interesting set up overall, would have enjoyed it if it had more extreme peaks but still felt nice. Shortly after the gig we're already packed and head to my friend Matthew's house where we're spending the night. It's a crazy student house, with 7 artist dudes living there so you can imagine it's a pretty special place hahah. Shutting down times. Tomorrow is a short drive, which means more time to explore lovely Brighton.

06/06/16 Weird times in Chatham So we're not leaving Brighton before 2 pm today and me and Daniel head to a three hour walk in Brighton. More Dr. Peppers and hanging out at the beach before we head to Chatham. It's a short drive nonetheless.

Around 7 pm we get to the place, finding a parking spot is a bitch, but we manage to score something not too far from the venue, which tonight is a bar that is already pretty crammed. Not sure how bar people will enjoy the strange Ræppen & Leaver agenda, I guess not too well haha. It's a huge bill tonight. With people playing stuff from guitar ambient, experimental folk to grunge and whatnot. We're not on until 11 pm so it'll be a long night. We grab some hardcore fried stuff, but can't seem to find coffee anywhere, so things are getting harder haha. Anyhow, the show starts and I can't really seem to take track of what's happening. For sure I dig Interstellar Noise Drive who does some really nice minimal guitar ambient over nice morphing ambiances coming from a computer. Later I find out that the backing track was actually written by Matt, who's promoter Abi's boyfriend and also our host. Then there are the Dead Puppy guys, which have some good guitar work in their music, but the pedophile references of their closing song I don't really dig. Old people singing about 17 y.o. chicks wanting them ain't really my cup of joe. Then Tim plays Ræppen and bar people come shouting, dancing strange dances, asking for the sound level to be decreased. Tim's answer is to get even louder, but I guess that's how you treat drunk morons. Next is us and I seem to have lost a cable and can't really do half of the stuff I play live, so I'm just fucking around with textures, while Daniel handles most of the music. Drunk people are still disrespectful and I end up storming and shouting across the whole bar during our last track. Sadly nobody drops their drinks. 

Anyhow, for such a problematic evening we manage to pull this one off... somehow. After us is The Reactor Core is Splendid, a project we've been hearing a lot of stories from Tim and he does live up to our expectations. Broken, outsider music, total deconstruction of guitar playing and structure and everything, with strange lyrics and flat, senseless singing (in the coolest way you can imagine). This guy is the best thing I've seen on the tour for sure. He has something really special and surely can piss people off. Gotta love it. Proof's below! Should have bought CDs. 

The night is over we head to Abi's place which is just above the bar, where we meet their three cats, which are awesome. Black lady Knicks is slightly being friendly, the ginger Little Dude keeps his distance and Squish actually comes over and establishes contact. ZZzzzzzz times now. The morning feels good, Tim's having some issues with his body because of too much fried food he says, so no more fry ups the next few days. We get some nice coffee, take a shower, have some toasts and we chat with Abi and Matt, who are the nicest people ever and have an awesome collection of Clive Barker books and whatnot. Abi's art is all over the walls of their house and it's a shame I didn't take some sneaky footage. I love the three cats are present in most of her paintings. That's how you love your cats! 

It's 12 already and our parking ticket is about to expire, which means time to hit the road to Cambridge for our penultimate show of the tour. Sad times.

Ræppen & Leaver Tour 2016 - Lincoln, Wallington, London

Honestly, I've been too lazy to even start this one, but here I am catching up on what's been happening during the Ræppen & Leaver Spring tour in England right after half of it has passed (daywise, most of the shows are yet to happen).

29/04/16 A flight and 5 hours of driving to get us to Lincoln

The morning starts fine as the plane taking us to London is a late one (at 11:40 am wohoo). Getting there with no issues, three hours of blasting KPD-0 on my earbuds and we're landing. We play the Snake aka proper English queueing and then we meet, Tim Holehouse, our tour buddy and the guy who booked this whole thing. It's been two years since the last time we toured England together so it's great to be back for another travel. We jump in the car and that's where we spend the next 5+ hours because of the insane traffic on London's ring road. Yeah, it's bank holiday on Monday so everybody's travelling.

Laugh Motel

We get to Lincoln around 7 pm to find we've missed the show of the awesome Peter K Rollings and his Experimental Sonic Machines. Thankfully recordings are already starting to pop up. However, the rest of the show is going with full force and we're just on time for Laugh Motel, which I think was a debut gig for Dominic, He's actually a very interesting visual artist, his stuff is all over the walls in the super cosy Decimal Place, the spot we're playing tonight. His set is very nice, based on tiny looping melodies and textures, played on three small synthesizers. Tiny imperfections make the music very intimate and sincere. After him Laser Pig are on for a weird mixture of dance music, theremin passages and high pitched opera-like singing by the lady in the duo. After them another duo is on - Agents of the Culture Industry. They blend live visuals (played on an old TV) with very textural and complex noisescapes, definitely something I'd be glad to see again on a huge sound and maybe not one, but a wall of TV screens. And then we go. Tim sets up, we do the same and he's on for a blues set that quickly warms the hearts of the attendees. We waste no time and play right after he's done. We do a quiet set, we mess a few things, but it certainly sounds better than what we did in Sofia so it does the job. People seem happy about it so we can call it a night. Not before we hit a pub nearby though. People drink pints I go for a lemonade, an hour later we hit the beds in Decimal place. It's been a long day.

30/04/16 A day off for travelling and lasagna

After a nice morning chat with coffee and croissants, which cool dude Dex, who's been running Decimal Place for over 10 years (and has a big heart for tapes, vintage music gear and all kinds of interesting art) we head back to London where we're spending the next three days. Tim's lady DiDi is our kind host and we hit the store before we nest in her new home. Tim cooks us a rad veggie lasagna. A meal that I've actually haven't had since my last times in London. And Tim doesn't disappoint once again, it's an ace treat and needless to say I find it pretty hard to stay awake after it. Even though I think me and Daniel even managed to go for a walk around the 'hood. Good boys.

01/05/16 Wallington times

Today is a gig day. Takes us about 45 minutes to get to Wallington. We easily find The Brook as Tim's played there pretty recently and knows the owner Andy for ages. We grab a coffee and are ready to soundcheck. It's so cool to see a venue of this size - let's say concert room fits 50 people - has such a good and dedicated crew. Something you barely see in big venues in a country I wouldn't be naming, but I guess you get the point. Anyhow, shortly we're good to go and wait for the show to start. Tonight we're playing what seems to be a singer-songwriter night, so Leaver is definitely the strange bird on the wire. Anyhow, people don't seem to mind our stuff, even when I start screaming. They do enjoy Tim's set a lot so having in mind the other acts on the bill are also pretty good I guess it's a cool, cool night. Huge ups for The Brook, awesome, awesome place. Another proof size doesn't matter and only how much you want to make things happening and moving forward.

Tim soundchecking in The Brook

We come back home and eat pizza. Still can't decide what's better - sleeping or pizza. I'm sure my tour mates will tell you the answer behind my back.

02/05/16 Weird times in London

It's no secret I don't really like London. Way too busy and complicated for my taste. I mean I like London only if I stay at home and chill... oh yes and for the veggie fry ups (we've scored one yesterday, tomorrow we have another one coming, yes).

Big cats of Catford

So when we head to the gig, I don't have my expectations high, cus you know how big cities are - either great show or a total disaster. Tonight is just weird. Amersham Arms is a nice place, definitely has some history and it looks as it has nice sound. However, the event we're playing is kinda different. There are 8 acts total, each of them about to play a 10 minutes long set, which blends into the next one. Me and Tim are in the second batch of performances (I go for a Mytrip set tonight, cus 10 minutes won't work for Leaver at all... it actually barely works for anything but maybe free jazz or harsh noise). The show starts with Super Football Champion Cup Boy and I think that's my highlight for the night. Guy plays and interesting piano piece on a Roland synthesizer, it's heavily effected, but very sparse and moving. Ani Glass also does some interesting vocal layering and looping, but when a disco beat enters I kinda lose the vibe.

No, I don't have an endorsement, I'm a sober boy

When it's my turn I play around a field recording snippet I did in Tesco the other day. Then I fuck around with my last pieces as Mytrip - Human Geometry and People are Broken and before I know the next act is on. Vera Bremerton does some vocal improvisations on two mics, one reverberated and the other one fed through iDensity. Not entirely my cup of hot beverage, but it blends so good with what Tim does. His set gets super intense and nicely built, however sound gets fucked up and clips terribly, we don't know who fucked up what, but surely it spoiled the vibe big time. That plus the fact it's been quite an empty night... Weird times in London, like I said. The night ends with an unexpected walk through the area, cus we miss our train. We catch another one and here we are at home again. Zzzzzzzzzz, oh no, watching one more Nashville episode first.

Recording stuff at 9 Unit Rehearsals, London

03/05/16 London sessions

Today is the last day off on this tour and we make sure we get the best of it. Tim and DiDi bring us to a cafe for our second fry up and it's real good again. Then we chill for a few hours and we head to 9 Unit Rehearsal Space becuase we're into doing some writing, recording, whatnot. And three hours later we manage to come up with two collab pieces, written, practiced and recorded. Only few bits and pieces need to be added, because our gear was pretty limited and we'll have the first Leaver / Tim Holehouse collab. Labels get in touch, that shite is pure gold!

That's how you spend a day off in London! The rest of it - me catching up on series and Daniel doing the tourist thing. As I'm finishing this it's once again time for Zzzzzzzz because tomorrow shit gets real and we head for Birmingham - the first of our 5 remaining shows, before we head home.

Leaver 'Head Home' out on digital & tape!

Ræppen & Leaver - Spring Tour 2016

From April 29 until May 8th Leaver will be touring England alongside Tim Holehouse and his latest project Ræppen. We're presenting our debut album Head Home. 

Poster illustration by Momchil Genov (https://instagram.com/xmomchilx/)

Leaver 'Head Home' out on tape April 27

Over three years after our first show as Leaver and after two years of wondering how exactly do we record this album it is finally ready! Head Home will be released on April 27. Amek & Serpent Eve Records are putting it on a tape, of course a digital version will be available as well.

Artwork by Daria Manolova
Produced by Leaver

Recorded by Mihail Slavov

Mastering by Marius Costache, Studio148

31/03 Bloodthirsty (dance piece by Philip Milanov)

After several years of not having worked with contemporary dance now working on music and soundscapes for a brand new project, called Bloodthirsty (Кръвожаден).

Bloodthirsty (dance piece by Philip Milanov)

premiere 31/03/16 & 07/04/16

National Dance Theatre, Sofia

RSVP: https://facebook.com/events/694078090735299/

идея и хореография: Филип Миланов

музика: Хорхе Мендез (Мексико) и Ангел Симитчиев

костюмография: Силвана Илиева

сценография: Яна Дворецка

участват: Виктория Петрова, Константина Ханджиева, Петя Колева, Васил Дипчиков, Светлозар Тинев, Стефан Вучов

продуцираща организация: Балет Арабеск

"Кръвожаден" е криминален танцово-театрален спектакъл за порива към крайността, който е заличил смисъла на определението за нежния пол.

Жената е загубила своето „специално“ място, определяно от отношението към нея. Мъжът се е превърнал в консуматор, а тя в средство за задоволяване на потребностите му.

Спектакълът е изграден от динамичен и енергичен танцов език, изразен чрез средствата на съвременния танц. Той въвлича зрителя в загадъчната игра между хищник и жертва.

Mytrip - People Are Broken

March 4th @ Club Base, Varna

3+ years later back to Varna for a Mytrip set alongside great acts!

RSVP: https://facebook.com/events/1077168845668982/

February 27 @ ДНК, Sofia

Best line up I've been part of since ages!

https://facebook.com/events/238761709790778/

Mytrip @ Control Club, Bucharest

The Valerinne album release show in Control Club, Bucharest that I had the chance to open was a blast. Here are a few photos from Miluta Flueras.

Feb 11 @ Control, Bucharest

After seeing some of the most important shows in my life at Bucharest's cult Control Club (this one for example or maybe this one) I'm starting 2016 by playing there as a special guest of my friends at Valerinne's album promo. 

RSVP: https://facebook.com/events/116515175363480/

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