Achordat begins as an open entity shifting, adaptive, ready to take new forms. DYL introduces this with four pieces: three solo experiments and a collaboration with Roberta, captured on a Sunday morning of spontaneous creation. Each track opens a different angle, together sketching the first outline of a label built on movement and transformation.
Aura Sonora returns with a second release, bringing together two meticulous studio craftsmen, DYL from Romanian & Tammo Hesselink from The Netherlands. Their “Moire Patterns” EP kicks off with ‘Pattern 1’, a deep and rhythmic slice of rubbery techno that rides broken beats with atmospheric pulses up top. ‘Pattern 2 slows down to a predatory crawl with icy pads making a dystopian vibe then ‘Pattern 3’ brings a sense of mystic tribal ritual deep in some futuristic jungle and ‘Pattern 4’ closes down with more fantastically crafted, dubby, broken rhythms that are topped with organic percussion and almost impossible not to move to. Pure rhythm science brilliance.
Cosmin TRG is a Romanian producer who crafted some of the underground’s most innovative sounds a decade or so ago, before going off to work in other creative worlds. Here, for the first time, he links with countryman DYL for a special EP that is decidedly futuristic. ‘Manevre’ is Romanian for ‘manoeuvres’ and comes in three different parts. Each one is fluid minimal sound with deft rhythms, fizzing pads, eerie melodies, sub-aquatic motifs and always absorbing atmospheres. Tammo Hesselink also adds a remix that has more prominent drums, lurching loops and menacing dystopian energy.
DYL presents a live-recorded set that embodies his experimental approach to sound design. By reprocessing stems from both completed and unfinished tracks through his modular system, he gives these pieces a renewed purpose and direction. The set offers a cohesive yet dynamic listening experience, reflecting DYL’s refined production techniques.
Senking and DYL team up again. ‘Diving Saucer Attack’ is the first full-length record by the German artist and his Romanian collaborator, released through the Berlin-based Karaoke Kalk label. The six pieces, two of which were produced individually, both showcase the duo’s shared interests for dub-heavy, adventurous electronic music while also emphasising the productive friction generated by the subtle differences between their respective approaches.
The fledgling Detach label continues to show it means business with a new 12″ in a lovely screen-printed sleeve. Romanian artist Dyl is the one in charge and has been serving up consistently excellent and innovative sounds now for serval years. All of these cuts mix up great sound design with languid rhythms – the first is eerie, with watery droplets and glassy tinkles hanging in the air, while ‘Glasshouse 2’ has a percolating rhythm down low. ‘Glasshouse 3’ gets a little more dynamic with a shimmering low end and freaky abstract life forms and ‘Glasshouse 4’ layers in more intense and ever-shifting synth lines while the closer sounds like it’s roaming through a deserted factory long after it shut down.
Sure Thing presents Well of Sand, its second compilation. Six tracks from label friends and favorites, each new to the roster and offering bold, untempered explorations of tempo and weight, a concise yet expansive collection recalling the deliberate cadence of rippling sand and the sheen of shimmering oases.
The Collection Artaud is a record label based in Berlin and run by Yu Miyashita. After a year of drought, the label is back with a release from Romanian drum & bass experimentalist DYL.
groove 15 is the final release in a series dedicated to attempts to combine ambient with footwork and 160bpm. The person responsible for closing this three-cassette series is Romanian producer Eduard Costea, known as DYL. In his work, he creates minimalist drum & bass structures, which he combines with illustrative music and atmospheric ambient. However, he does not limit himself to these aesthetics, freely changing tempos and moods.
Already in the second quarter of the year, the time it’s well passed to have a look back at what happened in terms of music production by Romanian artist in last year and what to expect in 2023.
2022 was pretty dry and chill year for the Romanian producers, with not many impressing achievements. We are still revolving around the same few figures, with very little coming forward besides the rominimal scene, but 2023 is looking more promising.
Eduard Costea aka DYL is a Romania-based (born in Deva & living in Cluj-Napoca) experimental producer. He lands on Nous’klaer with Fjord: a deep dive that starts out soothing and gets deceptively heavy and hypnotic as you swim further offshore – filled with immense echoes that can feel eerie and comforting all at once.
2020 was a tough year for almost everyone and definitely a year to forget for our scene. Events and gigs canceled, venues closed, artists lacking a way to earn a decent living and club culture facing a threat like never before. Without the interaction on the dancefloor all this seems pointless, but we have to stay resilient and hope for the better.
Looking at the local scene in Romania, during these times of hardship with movement restriction and curfew for almost the entire part of the year, with people fears and anxiety, there was almost to nothing happening in terms of events. But, the Romanian artists proved to be fairly active in the studio. We have here a summary of releases from Romanian artists that caught our attention in 2020 and a sneakpeek in what’s to come in the first part of 2021.
DYL+ DB1 successfully fuses experimental D&B, half-step and techno tropes. Here they re-establish their occasional studio partnership with a first collaborative full-length. It’s a pleasingly atmospheric and imaginative affair, with the pair offering up tracks that variously mix and match elements of unearthly ambient, off-kilter drum and bass, broken techno, murky post-dubstep rhythms, experimental electronica, the metallic clonk of industrial and the hazy hypnotism of dub techno. Musically it’s hard to pin down due to the wide variety of interestingly programmed rhythms, though the album’s uniformly paranoid sense of impending darkness, coupled with occasional glimpses of musical positivity, ensures a coherent aural vision.
Uniformity of Nature, the second release on Prague based Detach Recordings, marks an exciting collaboration between Romanian producer DYL, Senking from Raster/Noton and DB1 from Hidden Hawaii. DYL pushes the bounderies of his sound beyond his 170 roots, with the powerful electronics of ‘Phrases’ and the electrifying team-up with Senking on ‘Destroyed City Lights’. Two tracks see DYL in the more familiar peripheries of D&B. The percussive ‘Words’, with its curious background atmospherics, and the driving, hypnotic collaboration with DB1 on the title track ‘Uniformity of Nature’. ‘Launch’ sees Senking slow the tempo down and delve into a more murky space, yet still highly-charged with razor-sharp sound design. DYL closes the EP with the abstract ‘Semantics’, a further excursion into experimental electronics.
The last few years were quite good for the electronic music world and again in 2019 there was a lot a quality music coming out and revitalization of electro, broken beat, new beat and EBM continued. Looking at the situation locally, unfortunately 2019 feels like a step back for the Romanian scene after three years of growth and development. The three pillars of the Romanian electronic music are the same Borusiade, Cosmin TRG and Khidja and very little besides them.
“Sonder” is DYL’s second album, the first on vinyl and features 6 dark ambient tracks. This album is an open-ended story, which is edgy, dystopic and often disharmonic while progressing sonically throughout.
The ninth release on the Alpha Cutauri drum & space excursions comes from the Romanian artist DYL.
The Hipodrome Of Music 