Club Furies

Moscow label Tape To Tape, run by cassette hunter Kasia Ekstovich, specializes in a wide range of local treasures: from jungle to modern composition, lo-fi house to ambient pop, and everything in between. Established since 2018, for his most recent release, the label presents Moscow-based sound artist Atoraye, who blends Middle Eastern psychedelia, low-end drones, punchy drums, and cutting-edge electronica in his first work for Tape to Tape.

Half Assyrian, half Pontic Greek and diasporic nomad, Geo Kotanov explores in Eš his journey to Istanbul on the first side of the tape, weaving local found sounds and the words of Turkish mystic poet Yunus Emre into dense, hypnotic sonic textures. Side A also includes a hauntingly resonant piano recorded at Kotanov’s ancestral home in Tsalka, Georgia, an aging instrument once played by the artist’s aunt. Though out of tune and partially broken, it holds memory in its keys. «It reminded me of the watermill in Emre’s poem, both slowly worn down by time, but still alive,» says Atoraye.

Ilatu is a heart that beats strongly, subtly, and delicately with smooth sounds, very well carried, and with a very sophisticated sound design. Latent beats that reach the silence and retake parallel sonorous coordinates in another rhythmic sense. This time, they take us back to ancient times and an impenetrable fortress of sense.

The second half of this sonic work dives into the disintegration of memory through the prism of dementia, inspired by the artist’s grandmother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Using an Octatrack as instrument and metaphor, a single decaying sample representing memory is gradually dismantled, reflecting the slow and irreversible decomposition of the mind. The result is a devastating sonic elegy, a machinic farewell to someone who is no more.

Label: tape to tape
Artist: Atoraye
Title: Eš
Catalogue:

Release Date: May 18th. 2025
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Tracklist
1. Anatolia 03:52
2. Ilatu 04:16
3. Dertli Dolap (The Troubled Watermill) 09:57
4. Ekur (The Last Day) 10:28
5. Dementia 29:42

Credits
Music: Geo Kotanov
Mastering: Taras Sochinsky
Artwork: Alina Ignat
Producer: Kasia Ekstovich
Designer: Kasia Ekstovich
Olfactory artist: Maria Golovina
Recorded: Tapestm

Atoraye

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tape to tape

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Club Furies

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