Do you ever listen to a song and think to yourself ‘welp, I’ve never heard anything like this before‘? Because to my knowledge, it doesn’t happen very often in this day and age, and yet Zeki Jindyl (who I discovered via last year’s Ærkenbrand album) just managed to make my brain spit out that exact response. The Copenhagen-based multi-instrumentalist and composer might just be one of the most eclectic and original voices in modern music if this single doesn’t miraculously turn out to be a fluke.
I’m going to throw a few words at you in hopes that their particular combination will ring some bells. EWI synth drone with gorgeous vocals and spoken word passages – that’s essentially what we’re getting with Jindyl’s latest single “Wounded”. I’ve heard the song multiple times at this point, and its entire aesthetic still manages to throw me off balance in the best way possible.
‘Certainly this has to be the achievement of a veteran composer just hitting their stride after years of below-the-radar activity‘, I assumed after my first listen, incredulous at the music that befell me from my headphones. How naive, how foolish of past me; in fact, “Wounded” comes off Jindyl’s upcoming début (!!!) record Stretch//Relations, due out on April 18 via Pink Cotton Candy Records. Sure, the man is no blank sheet of paper, having contributed his talents to projects like Narcosatanicos, Caktus, and J. Ludvig III, but a track of this magnitude and originality still wasn’t on my bingo card. And the fact that it still sounds pristine in a live session makes it all the more mind-boggling.
If all this already sounds like the set-up to a monumental release – and you’d be forgiven for assuming as much – you might want to peruse this man’s influences for his first solo outing. Drawing from influences spanning the gamut from post-metal, ambient, and jazz to Arabic folk and modern r’n’b, Stretch//Relations is an exercise in postmodern collage music without losing its human touch. Seeing bands and artists like Bell Witch, Kayo Dot, Arca, Umm Kulthum, and Frank Ocean being mentioned in the same breath is throwing my brain for a rollercoaster’s worth of loops.
Stretch//Relations, intended as a ‘musical investigation of relationships – personal, observed, and imagined‘, was recorded by Jindyl on vocals, saxophone, EWI, electric and acoustic guitars, brass, flutes, percussion, drums, synths, piano (at this point it might’ve been easier to list the instruments he *didn’t* play), alongside a small cast of guest musicians to explore possibilities beyond the solo set-up. These include Þór Arnarsson (guitar), Laust Moltesen Andreassen (guitar), Jonas Due (flugelhorn), and Oliver Nehammer (guitar). Under different circumstances, an achievement this herculean might’ve taken a whole orchestra years to achieve; here, it’s one man and a merry band of helpers. Wild.
It might be easy to pre-emptively write off this album as overly cerebral and diverse to the point of fetishism, but the reality is that this is a deeply human, emotionally resonant piece of music that just happens to have the wildest FFO section you’ve ever seen. Improvisation meets rigid composition and chance encounters with the divine in the most organic fashion imaginable; Zeki Jindyl has found a mode of expression hitherto untapped, and I’m simply dumbfounded at the potential both realized and merely hinted at by his début record.
Going back to “Wounded” for a bit, it’s crazy how this beautiful, immensely original piece of minimalist, vocal-driven drone electronica isn’t even the most out-there composition on Stretch//Relations, and yet it still provided me with a perception-altering musical experience that I will likely be reeling from for the next couple of days. The live session does the intimacy of its sound justice, as it betrays the deep sentiment and passion behind Jindyl’s music. Even when radically himself, entirely on his own, he is able to conjure magic.
As I mentioned, Pink Cotton Candy Records will release Stretch//Relations on April 18, and I can *not* urge you enough to give it your undivided attention once it’s out. Zeki Jindyl deserves all the spotlight he can get; “Wounded” is just the beginning, I promise you. In the meantime, you can follow him on social media (Facebook | Instagram | Youtube) and listen to an edit of his previous single “Only Me” on Bandcamp.
