The name of the band means: construction, deconstruction.
In these two words there is the whole essence and idea of the music. Yin yang, chaos theory and harmony of the universe is a distinct inspiration of two outstanding musicians: Sebastian Gruchot and Karol Szaltis whose unrestrained passion for improvisation and musical experiments presents a strange but beautiful, world of sonoristics. Sonic collisions of electronic sounds and cinematic synthesis of sci-fi ambience with vintage organ synthesizers and digitally enhanced violins is a musical laboratory in which these two musicians hope to find fountain of youth.
In these two words there is the whole essence and idea of the music. Yin yang, chaos theory and harmony of the universe is a distinct inspiration of two outstanding musicians: Sebastian Gruchot and Karol Szaltis whose unrestrained passion for improvisation and musical experiments presents a strange but beautiful, world of sonoristics. Sonic collisions of electronic sounds and cinematic synthesis of sci-fi ambience with vintage organ synthesizers and digitally enhanced violins is a musical laboratory in which these two musicians hope to find fountain of youth.
MUSICIANS
Karol Szaltis
Karol Szaltis is a Warsaw based keyboardist associated with the improvised music scene of club Sklad butelek. Coming from a small village in northern Poland, as a child, inspired by The Doors and the music in the local church, he started to play the electric organ. During his music studies in Bydgoszcz, he started to collaborate with yass musicians from the local, world famous club Mozg. He quickly found out that avant-garde and experimental music is his big love and as a result two excellent bands emerged: Sami Szamani and Spejs. The last one released two albums: Czlowiek z jednym pejsem in 2007 and Rozwinal mi sie turban in 2010, featuring great musicians such as: Jacek Buhl on drums, Tomek Glazik on saxophone, Awry Sz on turntables, norwegian bass player Audun Ramo on double bass, and Sebastian Gruchot on electric violin.
During those years Karol developed his own, personal sound and style of improvisation, slowly and carefully collecting vintage keyboards using his incredible sonic intuition. His musical focus is not on scales, brilliant technique or music fads but on sonoristics, soundscapes, micro motives and being faithful to himself and his musical taste. Karol's first and oldest instrument: electric organ Vermona ET 6-1, is the base of the sound of Montage Demontage. The organ was made in the 70s in East Germany and was supposed to be some kind of «east european Hammond B3», but it became much more with its unique sound of deep, round bass and crispy treble. Two other classical vintage keyboards that Karol used on Flek are Casiotone 601 – a great programmable keyboard from the early 80s, and last but not least Yamaha SY85 – a fantastic sci-fi soundscape-maker. |
Sebastian Gruchot
Sebastian Gruchot is an exceptional musician. His main instrument is the violin, but he also plays the saxophone, is an arranger/composer and a music producer. Born in Bydgoszcz, Poland, he started his music education at the age of six. When he was fifteen he started to play jazz and quickly become an active member of the local jazz milieu. He has always been open to different styles of music and Bydgoszcz was the perfect place to grow up for such a musician. During the day, he played classical music in the conservatory, getting a great violin technique, and in the evening he usually started with a jam session in Eljazz club, where he played jazz standards, followed by avant-garde free jam at Mozg and finishing the night with a drum'n'bass set in the basement of Hak-Rec squad!
In the early 2000s he moved to Norway to study rhythmic music at Universitetet i Agder and he still lives in the Norwegian woods. He kept his curiosity of different styles of music and cultures and his main projects stretch from world music (Nutopia), through jazz (Gruchot/Krumins), to experimental (Gorzycki/Gruchot Experimental Psychology) and to electronic improvised music (Solfeggio body, Montage Demontage). He also plays in a legendary norwegian avant-garde heavy metal band: Arcturus. On Montage Demontage's Flek Sebastian used a vast variety of his instruments. He played acoustic violin, octave violin and viola but also analog synthesizers like Korg MS-20, Postcard weevil and of course his personal setup of a five-string electric violin and a laptop. He was also the producer of the project responsible for post-production, mixing and mastering and of course for choosing the music from hours of great improvisations recorded together with Karol Szaltis. |