It is near impossible to musically experience Helga Fassonaki as Yek Koo without losing one’s breath in sensory amazement. It’s an addictive whole-body movement that involves a multitude of listens with each repetition being a completely different encounter. As such, every new Yek Koo release is a jubilant excursion of the new and un-chartered.
On her new cassette, appropriately titled Head, Fassonaki provides recorded excerpts from her live Yek Koo performances between 2014 and 2015. Within each piece showcased, beats don’t move but push forwards and backwards through cassette players where they are then rerecorded, deleted, or otherwise. Diminished layers of hissing dance intercept with horn notation and haunting vocals in a dirty reverberation. Lost throughout the recordings are body movements brushing against the airwaves and distorting the sound source. It’s physical for definite and absolutely essential.
Head is available as a limited edition cassette. An unlimited digital release is also available.