While some can pass off overconfident oft-pretentious artist statements with a straight face local producer Krzysztof Sujata is far too humble for that. An arbiter of ambient music under the Valiska moniker he admits it’s hard to describe his work to the uninitiated.
“When people ask me what kind of music I make I say imagine what you hear in movies like soundtrack music but taken out of the context of film… it’s a hard question” he says interrupting himself with a laugh. “It’s soundtrack music but a bit noisier and not as structured with the image. It’s more abstract…. It builds the mood that atmosphere. That’s what I think when I think of ambient music.”
Though it’s likely not the sort of statement you’d get from a hoity-toity electroacoustic musicologist Sujata is precisely right. For the last four years spread across cassette and digital releases Valiska has specialized in ethereal near-cinematic listening experiences that perfectly soundtrack the listener’s day-to-day experiences.
Built on processed guitar and piano loops Valiska’s sound sketches are decidedly out-there. Still they stay rooted in reality and avoid floating in the endless aural ether thanks to a love of structure.
“Ambient music is very abstract so I find if I don’t have a narrative for it it’s hard to know where it should go” Sujata says. Shifts for example the seven-song EP the artist released late last year was hinged to the story of a journey. “It was kind of a personal narrative” he says. “I didn’t really explain it when I released it because I didn’t think it was necessary but the whole tape is a narrative of this trip I was on and that’s kind of how I let things flow.”
La Tourette the fantastic three-song EP Sujata released onto Bandcamp last month has a clear-cut beginning middle and end based on the idea of an architectural structure. “When it has a narrative I know when a song’s supposed to end what a song’s supposed to do” he says. “Without a concept or a narrative I find it just sounds like a drone piece that doesn’t go anywhere. That kind of cerebral more conceptual place is a good way to [add structure] and then obviously in the music as well.”
Like so many others Sujata spent his youth toying around with the beat-making software FruityLoops but it wasn’t until after university that he became seriously interested in ambient music. He recorded his earliest ideas on an EP and was spurred on by his friend Calgary music nerd and musician Jordan Lane to keep pursuing the project. Lane booked a show and that increased the forward momentum.
“I was already interested in going forward but it kind of spurs you when you have some good feedback” says Sujata. The support of Calgary’s experimental music scene has been a common thread in Valiska’s trajectory to date (and he’ll perform at Innovare Accord a three-day Calgary-centric outsider music festival organized by Jung People’s Bryan Buss this weekend). “Once you’re more involved with the scene locally it just pushes you forward” Sujata reiterates. “It’s a nice communal thing we have in Calgary…. There’s maybe not a lot of people doing what I do necessarily but there are a lot of people who I really have a fun time with and love playing shows with and love going to shows with.”
The future is wide open for Valiska who has two releases in the works. One is a collaboration with Greek saxophonist Phil Gardelis who makes music under the name Zenjungle. The two have created an EP as penpals. Then there’s the next Valiska solo release which will be built from piano recordings Sujata made with Bryan Buss. Goals include touring in other countries and continuing to write and record new music though Sujata is mostly open to going wherever his experiments take him.
“It’s a journey” he says. “Especially with experimental music when you sit down to record something you don’t know what it’s going to turn out to be. You just kind of see where it goes and hopefully it’s a good place.”
