{"id":13,"date":"2024-08-13T16:49:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T14:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pafgens.exitmusic.org\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2025-07-10T22:10:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:10:26","slug":"bio-and-press","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pafgens.exitmusic.org\/?page_id=13","title":{"rendered":"Bio and press"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Formed in 2013 as a lo-fi shoegaze project by Slovak couple Jana Dr\u00e1bekov\u00e1 Ko\u010di\u0161ov\u00e1 and Filip Dr\u00e1bek, P\u00e4fgens are slowly shifting from songwriting towards immersive soundscapes. The drone experiment started as an exercise at home and turned into a fully formed project, where guitar and bass are looped into multitude of layers and result in ethereal drones with shoegazy feel and subtle melodies. Best example is their most recent album Aspect of What<\/a> released by mappa label in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music is sometimes accompanied by vocals, sometimes it is completely instrumental. Quite often, there are field recordings or other instruments besides bass and guitar. Slowcore songs and semi-improvised drones may seem like two completely different sonic worlds, but P\u00e4fgens are merging them with ease into an atmospheric and hissy blend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The learning process is just as much an act of healing as betterment. The enabling of solutions through sheer willpower and openness to discovery, or a noble mission, never completed. In that spirit, the latest album by Berlin-based Slovak duo P\u00e4fgens \u2013 comprising Jana Dr\u00e1bekov\u00e1 Ko\u010di\u0161ov\u00e1 and Filip Dr\u00e1bek \u2013 represents a pensive development for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liner notes by Tristan Bath about Aspect of What<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drifting from their lo-fi shoegaze beginnings, P\u00e4fgens drone-infused soundscapes have become increasingly immersive and expressive \u201cframed improvisations,\u201d where spontaneous passages are captured, then revisited with fresh layers upon layers over the course of months, breathing and evolving naturally, mirroring the unpredictability of nature. Songforms have all but melted away, with ethereal guitars and bass nestling up against field-recorded sounds, synth beds, percussion, and singing bowl tones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The framed improvisation on \u2018Aspect of What\u2019 explores love and loss, relishing both the joy and melancholy of paying tribute to Filip\u2019s late ethnologist grandmother, Bo\u017eena Filov\u00e1 (1926-2020). Her voice opens track 2, \u2018Particles\u2019, speaking of the humble desire to \u201chelp the people in the rural environment\u201d, and the goal of \u201cuplifting people to better living through education\u201d. The album\u2019s emotionally charged approach to improvisation is suitably uplifting and seemingly made without ego, the couple melting away into the flitting wall of rustling drones and heavenly fuzz. Even at their most serrated (the groaning guitar amp squall underpinning \u2018Journey\u2019) or when surrounded by chiming bells, clocks and bowls (\u2018Around the Clock\u2019), P\u00e4fgens is ready to listen, rest, learn, and improve, extracting and nurturing hidden abstract emotion in every piece, plundering something universal and teachable from very personal depths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected press quotes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristoffer Cornils of Field Notes on Der Regen LP (2022)<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWith an incomparable calm that could probably best be described as meditative precision, they predominantly interweave guitar melodies and soundscapes, only rarely adding concrete rhythms, as in the track \u00bbSanddornebene\u00ab. Instead, the driving urgency of this music arises from the interplay of disparate elements, which places this album in a tradition that ranges from early minimal music to post-rock.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

James Thornhill (Under the Radar) about the concert at Sharpe Festival 2023<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Back down in the basement confines, P\u00e4fgens shifted through their musical personas with ease. Whether playing lush, slowcore tunes, soaring drone numbers or electronic shoegaze the duo created a singular joyous tone. Melding songs together with intermittent soundscapes, creating an almost constant flow, Pafgens is clearly a band that understands the huge aural world they have created and are inviting us all to reside there with them. If Low, Maps or Divide & Dissolve do it for you, Pafgens are worthy of exploring.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u0141abandzi \u015apiew on Der Regen LP (2022)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The subtlety is the keyword here: the music is based on acoustic sounds that get looped and changed all over so they create tiny mazes of mesmerizing sound. And those mazes lead us through tiny worlds filled with field recordings that make them alive. The subtlety is the keyword here: the music is based on acoustic sounds that get looped and changed all over so they create tiny mazes of mesmerizing sound. And those mazes lead us through tiny worlds filled with field recordings that make them alive.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Monique Woolen-Lewis (Pleiadesounds.com) on Arthrolyse EP (2020)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Entirely improvised, P\u00e4fgens\u2019 latest music takes a departure from their particularly breathy\/jangley brand of indie ambient, opting for an inspired and spontaneous aural stream-of-consciousness. Recording a myriad of instruments through Ableton, and onto a tape recorder creates a sort of super 8 grain and warmth to the whole soundscape, adding an organic depth and dimension to their ever loosening song structures.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Formed in 2013 as a lo-fi shoegaze project by Slovak couple Jana Dr\u00e1bekov\u00e1 Ko\u010di\u0161ov\u00e1 and Filip Dr\u00e1bek, P\u00e4fgens are slowly shifting from songwriting towards immersive soundscapes. 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