As you may have noticed, Mytrip-related updates have become scarce. After 15 years I felt this project simply ran its course.
For the foreseeable future, the main discography of the project will remain online, at least until Bandcamp exists. There are still copies of my 7" with Shrine & the split with Evitceles in stock at me and via Amek. All other Mytrip releases are sold out but still easily available on Discogs or various online shops, that is if you care to complete your collections.
Photo from the last Mytrip show shot by Momchil Stoynov on July 3, 2022
Thanks to everyone for listening, booking, or attending a show, grabbing a record, or reviewing one. Something new is coming this Fall, which I believe will be the spiritual successor of Mytrip and beyond.
“Protective” blurs the boundaries between a split and collaborative LP. The record thoroughly captures and showcases Mytrip and Evitceles in their own and very individualist approaches to aggressive and atmospheric electronic music. What this album also does is present their combined power under the name Protective.
Written and recorded by Angel Simitchiev & Etien Slavchev.
Mastering by Ivan Shopov at Etheraudio Studio. Artwork by Silvana Ilieva.
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.
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.
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.
If you're around Sofia you have about a week to experience something very curious, which a bunch of great and very creative people curated. Curated here is said pretty figuratively since their concept was to avoid accentuating over persons, names and authors, but leave it all to your very personal perception. A selection of carefully picked art pieces in three mediums, exploring three of your senses will do the talking instead. Their creators will be revealed only if you wish.
We played a show alongside drone lady Foie Gras and King Dude, who really is a dude. Our favorite photographer in town made us nice photos. All the love for HRB.
For sure it wasn't our best show from a technical side because we are simply not playing live too often and in the same time we decided to experiment with few new things, including live drumming. However, there are people (journalists included) who seem to have enjoyed our set.
"Носталгия, красива и леко призрачна..." ~ MetalHangar18
"Атмосферата натежава... хората се чудят на това пляскаме ли? По-скоро не. Но не от неодобрение, тъкмо напротив." ~ Mysound
It's out and it's the only present I cared about to get on my 27th birthday today. 'Letting Go of People' is the debut album of my newest sonic outlet Dayin. Music played and recorded during the summer, when writing for Mytrip doesn't really work. It's also the album, which took me the longest to finish as it was started somewhere in 2012. Then in 2014 Dayin debuted live for two shows in Sofia and later two shows in Berlin, in the meanwhile I've been contributing remixes and compilation pieces.
Now with the help of the boutique German tape label Cosmic Winnetou Dayin is debuting on tape. Thanks to Katya Velkova's fantastic work on the artwork it really looks like an album.
As usual available for stream & download as well as on tape.
Empty is a small step on a new sonic path for me. The sound is deep as usual, but less lo-fi and warmer instead. The two conceptually linked pieces are thick, but still spatial. They ascend from pure darkness to a calmer and abrasive, yet almost uplifting vibe.
Recorded in just two nights, as most of Mytrip’s work, Empty is an attempt to bury an immense human loss in layers of abstract soundscapes. Mastered by Ivan Shopov, one of the most prolific Bulgarian artists, this record is still meant to be experienced as loud as you can get and live wherever possible.
In April 2014 I headed on my first ever visit to England. An awesome musician and a friend Tim Holehouse had managed to arrange us a small tour on the island after we briefly met in 2013 while he was in Bulgaria for two shows. And here we are, an year later with a common tape to commemorate one of the most special nights of the tour - our show in Brighton. The story about it is still available in this blog, you can check it out here. How it sounded you can stream or download for free from the player above. A tape is released by Abandonment (Bulgaria) and limited to just 22 copies.
There's а very special B-Side on this release, which is for now available only on the physical version. This is where Tim is playing a reconstruction of his set in Sofia and I rework a song called "Острови" by my all-time favorite Bulgarian band - the cult КПД-0. It's also highly likely that this tape is the last TCH record ever released as Tim shut it down after playing the world for 10 years to move forward under a new monicker and with a new concept.
This year has been fun with lots of sonic trips and that's how it will end. In the next three days I'm playing what I suppose will be the final Mytrip shows for 2014 (with maybe just one more gig happening in mid December in Bulgaria). The final batch of drone emissions will be unleashed this Friday / weekend.
I start with joining a massive improvised drone collaboration in Soho, Sofia. The ocassion is Ivan Shopov's (COOH, Balkansky) new exhibition. To celebrate it we're forming a drone ambient voltron where the Mytrip drones will be embraced by the massive sound of Balkansky to meet the voice of Tsvetan Hadjiiski (Smallman) and Mr. Smiff's trumpets (Ambient Anarchist).
Then just a few hours later I'll be getting on the plane and heading to Belgium for an event I've been eager to play for months - Deer Trail Records' Ceremony of the Ascension III. Just click on the event link above, check out the line up and that'll pretty much sum up why is this festival so special. In case you're around Antwerp - see you there.
I perceive the one hour long leg dragging under the street lights, then along the tram lines, up the small hill and finally through my trashy yard as hour-long rewind. In the night you’re left with only your mental insides resonating in the thin space between your oversaturated with experiences brain and the surface of the comfortingly vibrating ear buds. In that quietly accompanied by music environment you bring them all back.
The cold is almost the same as it was five hours ago. The anticipation, however, has been replaced by completion. Yeah, that excitement is still there, kind of enhanced. Lingering between fast forward, presence and that rewind, you find yourself walking past the windows of a bunch of fast food joints. They’re silent, empty and squeaky clean now. You’re no longer inside getting closer to… the chopsticks, but riding that same street, which is now finally empty. Nobody can bump into her, even if there was, no her to bump into. Battery low, still text comes in, the BB can handle yet a few vibrations more. A transport communication to keep you excited, and make you move your legs faster so you reach a hot spot slash home slash bed to revive a conversation which barely ended few streets ago. In the human-free night there’s a spot I quickly avoid. A party in the university. Too much biceps power, too much make up even for a rapid glimpse. I switch sidewalks. Then again. A quick check in a tired 24 hrs shop. Cat sand has become a scarcity in the neighbourhood, can’t slash won’t imagine the massacre on the first floor. But cats can wait this time. Dragging up the stairs. It’s as shabby as the hostel at home, but at least nobody's smoking here tonight. The lungs can have a break.
The bed. Wake up, computer. Sign in. Hey, I’m home.
Oh yeah, did I mention there was this creep staring at us.
I find it extremely hard to make music as Mytrip during the long summer days that's why about two years or so I decided to not waste a whole season but kinda lift my usual ambient sound to a new, different mood and present it under the name Dayin. More melancholic I'd say. For most people it may still sound sad or even dark, I find it positive. Especially when played live. Oh yes, I've already presented this project live three times and more will come pretty soon. Hear the last two pieces I recorded, both released in two compilations one of which dedicated to a very imporant cause. Adding soundcloud links, if you like what you hear you can get the files from the labels.
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