Two CANCELLED UK shows with V-Stók - March 19-20, 2020

Back to the UK this month while we are still allowed there. 

Playing Bristol and Birmingham with V-Stók.

Mytrip & Evitceles - NL 2018

Poster by Nikola Kostov.

Mytrip & Xún - ENGLAND 2017 Tour

Mytrip @ Protos Orofos, Thessaloniki 06/05/17

Photos by Silvana Ilieva.

Thanks to Protos Orofos.

Mytrip - Filament Alive - 2017

This starts on Thursday from Poznan.

Filament live in selected cities around Europe.

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

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.

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/)

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.

Transfiguration Festival (Bulgaria) 6-9 August

Here's an event I've been waiting to play the whole summer. Yes, my music as Mytrip hasn't seen too many outdoor performances but this August I'll be bringing the drones in the Village of Dolen, Bulgaria. The line-up is pretty special and so is the whole event. Above you can see the second of two stages, all hand-built during the past few monts, 8 m. tall... Really, what a place! 

Mytrip is playing on August 9th, the last day of the festival. The event itself will be accessible for only 1024 people due to the capacity of the village. So it'll be indeed quite a unique ocassion. That's why I'm cooking a special set, which will be the backbone of my first proper full-lenth album.

Tickets: http://bit.ly/1KS8T6w

RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1404218466569008/

Mytrip & Conjecture Tour - Days 13-15 - Novi Sad, Belgrade, Plovdiv & The End

22/04 Novi Sad and oh we're DJs now lol

After 2-3 hours of not so easy driving through country roads, which were at least sometimes picturesque we manage to reach the Romanian - Serbian border, where we spend the next 30 minutes as the 'super kontrola' is convinced we have drugs. They bring the selfie-stick and check our car big time. At this point the trunk is stacked with vinyls, both from the Ugly & Proud Distro that Niki's bringing on the tour and from our own hunts. They ask him if he's a DJ, he says he's not ahaha. Anyhow, after a half an hour they let us go and after maybe one hour and something we reach Novi Sad. After getting lost for a bit we manage to find the place where we're supposed to find Boyan from Rebuild Collective. He's at work, but he's managed to find us both a sleeping place and a gig that we can join. So we briefly meet him and then head to Culture Exchange, a biker's place, with a cool library, nice coffee and the bartender greets us with Fall of Efrafa blasting from the speakers. After a cup of coffee we go for a walk around the city with Goran, who used to play in Furtive Forest with Boyan back in the day. Around 8 we're back at the place which is slowly getting crowded (it's not too big anyhow). There's a guy playing an acoustic set. He mostly does covers, sometimes girls join him 'on stage' and sing with him. People are sitting on tables, clapping and moving their lips as if singing. I wonder if they are all schoolmates. Me and Vasilis are wondering what should we do tonight because our stuff will probably piss on each and every party mood. We decide to do a short DJ set. We have a bit over an hour before the place is closed so we play our current favorite tracks jumping from IDM to Industrial and whatnot. Some people leave, others come and say they're a bit sad we didn't really do our live set. Still, we're happy how this all turned out still it seems we'll have a reason to come back.

On our way to the Novi Sad fortress

A bit after 12 pm we grab something to eat and go to sleep in Crna Ovca, Rebuild Collective's DIY heaven, full of vinyls, zines, films on vhs and comic books. The Greek people ravage the place and buy a tons of records, while me, Niki, Goran and Boyan chat about whatever. Around 1 we call it a day and cool thing is no need to hurry tomorrow.

23/04 Belgrade, but falafel first

Our next actual show is in Belgrade. It's actually the pre-final gig of this tour. However, the ride from Novi Sad to Belgrade is pretty fast so we go on another walk in Novi Sad. We go to the fortress and it's nice, but even better is when we sit in Ananda, an awesome vegan place in the city center where we get served great stuff. The falafel in this place are out of this world. I will be bold here and say they are as good as those in Poznan... Okay I did it and it's true. Since Novi Sad is far closer to Sofia I guess that's my new Poznan. After we pick our stuff we go to Culture Exchange for a quick coke, because that's what you drink after falafel and you know that. About 4 pm we're already on the road and Belgrade here we come.

The Belgrade venue!

We easily find the spot and it's awesome. A building with only walls in the most hipster area of the Belgrade city center. Right next to the river. After some pizza, few issues with the PA we're good to go, just waiting for some people. And quite many of them actually show up. It seems Srdjan and Sofija have managed to do some great work on this event and we manage to play in front of a pretty big crowd, actually one of the biggest for this tour. It would have been cool if the people would shut up for a bit but meh, whatever. I really dig the sets of both Raven and Lomz, especially Lomz I'd like to hear in a bigger venue with a longer performance since we were all kind of shortening our sets to fit the curfew and not piss of the police (and the neighbors, who actually all came to bitch about how loud our show was). After the show we chat with some cool people for a bit and then decide to head to Sofia right away. The trip is pretty smooth. We don't stop, just blast Rado Shisharkata and some mega folk hits, which Vassilis and Philip already know the lyrics of and here we're at home for the first time in two weeks. Now some sleep so we can go to Plovdiv tomorrow and finish this tour.

Surprise harsh noise set from Srdjan.

Oh yes, the kittens are bigger and cuter, I don't want to give them to anybody. THEY ARE MINE.

24/04 Plovdiv, the grande finale of this tour

Shower, breakfast, fun times at the change burreau, because Vasilis is a financial guru and we're already on our way to Plovdiv. We get there around 6 pm and the doors are already open the sound is set. We quickly plug-in, soundcheck I leave a playlist of hipster music and go to grab a bite. Me and Niki get a huge pizza because after Novi Sad and Poznan the thing that they call falafel in Plovdiv will be simply embarassing. We sit in the park, eat, feed the cats, we do the crust-punk thing. Around 8 pm we're in Kosmos again, which is probably in the Top 5 venues of the tour. I meet some friends, some of whom have travelled from Sofia for the show and around 8:45 I start playing. There are quite some people, but I'm not really sure most of them know what this show is all about - deep dark music and obscure visuals. Anyhow for both our sets there are people hanging out and watching / listening so it's a pretty nice evening. Petko (nemko-fi from Melformator) does GREAT job with the live visuals and I can't wait to collaborate with him again. After the show we pack and head straight to Sofia. I'm not sure any of us is realizing our 15-day-long tour has just come to an end. Yes, it might feel okay now, but I'm sure I'll have to face the sad truth when next Monday, instead of going into the car to head to another city I'll have to take the tram and spend the next 9 hours writing.

To sum things up.

5500+ kilomtres, 15 days, 15 cities, 14 shows, great food, great people, awesome promoters everywhere. Definitely worth it... as touring in general. Thanks to everybody who booked us, hosted us in their house, cooked us food, supported us by getting some merch. Huge ups to Niki for driving relentlessly, to Philip for helping us get proper sound everywhere, to Vasilis for enduring this tour despite everything and to me for working on this shit for the past 5 months.

Mytrip & Conjecture Tour - Days 10-12 - Poznan, ?!?!, Oradea

19/04 Poznan - KEBABISTAN I LOVE YOU

We wake up after the awesome night in Dresden and we sit in the place where we played last night and have a great breakfast. Actually a power electronics breakfast, which turns into dark ambient breakfast when Ulrich changes the music to Inade so we don't get too misanthropic in the morning. After few cups of coffee, fruits and everything needed for a great start of the day we're packed and on the road to Poland.

Okay, so I have to admit I've booked this tour with reaching Poznan and the best falafel in the universe as my main destination. No, seriously, this is some highlight stuff. I spent the past 3 years talking about the falafel heaven Kebabistan so I'm excited! After few hours on the road we arrive in the city and go for a walk. Our meeting with Konrad, who's doing the show tonight is in 2 hours so we have some time to kill on the Sunday streets of Poznan. It's as beautiful as usual, Polish ladies included. We finally land in front of the venue and Kristian, who's running LAS shows up. The place is great, we hang around, quickly set up and check and we're good to go. Some people start showing up, including my Plovdiv friend Petko, or should I say Gdansk friend, as that's where he came from to hang out with us. It's time I start this show and I do it. I fucking love the sound, fat drones fill in the whole space, I see people with closed eyes and I get really into the music myself. Conjecture starts right after me and the sound is so good that I wish he had played longer. Actually it's when I realize this tour could have been even better if there were more local acts on those shows, since we're mostly playing these shows alone.

After the show we hang out for a while and on our way to the hostel WE GO TO KEBABISTAN. And oh the pleasure... It's like breathing for the first time. My biggest fear these past 3 years was that they will somehow fuck up those falafels, but man. That stuff's eternal. Now I can sleep... forever.

20/04 Highways, anarchists, night snacks...

We wake up around 10 and around 11 am we're out on the looks for food. Sadly Kebabistan is not open before lunch and the one that's actually working has no falafels. Fuck my life. Anyhow we leave Poznan a bit worried since last night we got a call and few messages from our friends in Bytom saying that the whole crew, who was running the place where we are playing was... arrested after a protest action in Katowice. Some info you can find here, don't know how reliable the source is, but I guess that's all we know as well. 

So we decide to directly head to Oradea, which is some 800+ kms drive. I won't go into details how 'exciting' 15 hours in the car are, especially for Niki, who once again proves he's the king of driving. Let's just say we make it to Oradea at about 8 am after several wi-fi, food and sleeping pit stops on gas station. Thankfully we're safe and sound, even if tired as shit.

Forest, my main cat mate in Oradea

21/04 The cats of Oradea

Our host for the morning is Razvan. He and his girlfriend Lavinia let us sleep in their place until the afternoon and then head to work. But we're not alone! We spend the next few hours in the company of their 4 cats. Some hang out with us, others hide, but whew. It was high time we spent some quality cat time on this tour. At some point we're all refreshed and awake, and Razvan gets back home from work early so we can hang out with him as well. He's also playing tonight. Actually doing his first TAUUSK show in Oradea.

TAUUSK and his monster drones on stage

Few hours later George, who's running Moszkva comes to bring us there. We get to the place, which is great and huge. I'm kinda sad we'll never have such nice things in Sofia, because... people. Anyhow, we drink coffee, talk shit as usual and in the meanwhile thanks to our mate Boyan we manage to score a last minute gig in Novi Sad for the next day to replace the Timisoara show that got cancelled (still haven't heard from the promoters haha). We set up our gear, the sound is promising, the atmosphere is perfect and we're good to go. TAUUSK opens the gig with a great guitar drone / doom set with perfect melodies, build-ups and textures. Then it's my turn and even if I kind of fuck up the beginning of the set I think it gets pretty okay in the end. Conjecture plays longer and does few tracks we haven't yet heard on the tour and they sound awesome. Definitely one of the top 3 gigs of this tour. Big ups to everybody involved. I finish my second veggie burito, cooked by Lavinia and off to the sleeping place we go. Next stop Novi Sad for a semi-day off / semi-gig thing. 

Mytrip & Conjecture Tour - Days 7-9 - Kassel, Berlin, Dresden

16/04 Kassel and a bunch of the wrong Bulgarians

So after a decent sleep we head on a walk around Frankfurt so I get myself a new charger, since mine is in Prague. Till lives on a great spot and some 30 minutes of walking we reach the pretty busy center where I find all that I need. Next stop is a café on the small square near his place again, then falafel times and we’re on the road again. Our next stop is Kassel. Where we’re playing a show with Berlin’s raw punk band Piss. We get to the place an hour early and we go for a walk. It’s an immigrant area and me and Niki are not really surprised to hear a conversation in Bulgarian between a dude hanging on a block balcony and another one who has just “found a bike on the street” that he’s about to sell. We don’t introduce ourselves to these people because we kind of have some stuff they’ll be probably really into finding on the street as well.

Piss killing it in Kassel

After several minutes of wandering we’re back in front of the venue to see one of our kind hosts Joscha (also playing in Abest, whose LP I recently reviewed onDIYconspiracy) arriving to show us around the awesome punk house we’re playing tonight. It has it all – a neat kitchen, hang out area, large PA and as we’re about to find out a bit later – many nice people. In a bit Steffi, the other person responsible for the event also shows up. Few drinks, neat talks and we’re ready to set up. Piss arrive, do a fast sound check and me and Vassilis put a table in front of the drum set and we also check for a bit. After Joscha cooks us rad vegan pasta the show is ready to start with me, and there even seem to be some people enjoying it. We don’t do a break, Conjecture merges with the ending of my set and he does his thing as well. I see some heads moving so I guess it’s cool. After us is Piss. They play a fast and primal punk, with an almost black metal feeling at times so I’m all for that. Somehow reminds me of UHL, whom I haven’t heard in ages. I’m really glad Joscha and Steffi decided to do the gig that way – mixing genres one would not really often see on the same stage. It allows the night to really stand out. Few hours later we’re already in our sleeping bags as on the next morning we’re leaving early, because Berlin and its record stores and vegan places are waiting for us.

17/04 Berlin and okay we’re now poor

It’s about 9 and we’re already on the road, because… Berlin, man. There are at least 2 record shops we have to check and here we are. First stop is Static Shock, Niki does a trade, I score some hipster stuff, Philip indulges his secret desires for heavy metal and Vassilis, hm I don’t remember. Okay he’s telling me now – he gets a Coil record and we do an oil fight over a Lustmord record, which actually nobody gets. Next stop Yana’s place. We take her from the heart of Kreuzberg and Bis Aufs Messer here we come. I score the new Fvnerals and a record I don’t really know, Vassilis gets the Merzbow / Full of Hell collab and the new Correction House, Niki scores the Unbroken discography, the new Blacklisted (cause he wants to be trendy sometimes) and Philip gets some hairy black metal – Lychgate and Death Karma. The guys at the store even stock few copies of my 7” so yeah, if you’re around go for it, for sure you’ll find something worth starving for. Then we hit Yoyo for some vegan magic. Time kinda flies in Berlin and so do our money. On our way to Ma Thilda, which is situated in Neu Koln we go check an exhibition of a Lithuanian artistShaltmira, who I knew only from Instagram. The works she’s presenting are really good, but the space itself is a bit small, especially for the bigger drawings. I’d really like to see them exhibited in a larger gallery since I think this way they can interact more with the space itself and… actually breathe.

Bis Aufs Messer, okay I'm home

Anyhow it’s cool we manage to see this as well and we’re heading now to Ma Thilda to end an already great day with a show. Around 20:30 my buddy Adi, who’s been kind enough to let me play there for two times already arrives and we set everything. An awesome Polish visual artist, I think named Yann, lets us use his beamer and around 9:40 I start the show. Some friends show up, including Daniel and Stefan, and knowing they’ve also seen me playing 1, 2 times I go for a slightly different set, which in the end I think works out pretty fine. At least that’s what they also say. Conjecture hits the stage after a small break and he sounds good even if he looks a bit tired, but Ma Thilda looks pretty full, we hang out, have fun and play our thingies so I guess we did finish the evening the best possible way, or actually not yet. Best thing comes an hour later when we invade Joro and Ina’s place and we open the snoring factory, especially the Greek division (at least that’s what Niki claims, I just sleep there as if I was slaughtered).

18/04 Dresden, tofu and what a sound

We leave Berlin at about 9:30 since Ina is taking a part in a comic convention with her illustration series 'my beloved friend'. The drive to Dresden’s a pretty easy one so it doesn’t really take us too long to get there. Still we have quite some time to kill before meeting Ulrich from Club Debil, who’s taking care of us drone kids today. Loshwitz seems to be quite a fancy neighborhood and while on the hunt for something fast to eat we kind of drag the attention of the locals because… Well, to put it that way, because we do look like people, who spent the past 9 days in a car.

Loschwitz seems quite livable, right?

We manage to find some food not too far from the venue, then we sit in a fancy café and before we realize it it’s always 4 pm and it’s time to meet Ulrich and check out the venue. Our promoter has a birthday today and we’re really happy to be a part of it. Tonight we’re playing a former fire brigade building, which has been restored and is now used as a cultural center. We do some preparations for the show later, but since we’re still waiting for the sound engineer we also go for a walk along the river. Dresden’s a pretty spacey city. With a lot of air, a lot of green fields, nature, even farms with horses so it’s pretty much hanging out in the country in the same time as being in a pretty lively city.

Back in the venue we sound check and Eric, who’s in charge of the sound tonight, does great job giving us probably the best sound for the tour. A lot of bass, one that you can actually feel is filling the cellar of the building and we know we’re in for a good night. It’s time for food and Ulrich cooks us rice with tofu, beans, pickles, peppers and whatnot. After this vegan delight I’m struggling hard not to fall asleep, I attack this instinct with a cup of coffee and as I’m halfway done with this report Vassilis and Philip come to read it and laugh at the image I’m building for them (quite objectively actually haha). After a few conversations about who the Greek Johnny Depp really is and am I actually touring with him it’s time for me to play and it feels really good. There are some people, who seem really into what I do (according to Niki) and I guess it’s a nice set as the bass is slowly creeping in the whole room, pierced by slightly distorted highs. After a short break it’s Conjecture’s turn and his music also benefits from the great sound. He even plays two tracks we haven’t heard on this tour so far. As I write this Ulrich’s birthday party is going with full force, let’s see how much our batteries will last before teleporting to our sleeping place for the night, which thankfully is just two floors above.