Áron Porteleki Released New Track “Cryptic Bodies”; “Smearing” LP Out March 23rd

We are excited to share with you ‘Smearing’: the debut solo studio production of Budapest based drummer, viola player, sound artist Áron Porteleki. 

Porteleki is mostly known for his deep work in the Hungarian experimental and free improv scene as a drummer, but he also has a strong traditional folk music background as a trained viola player, therefore his musical projects had always been beyond genres and boxes. Besides the numerous bands and collaboration activities, Áron also has a long running history with internationally recognized contemporary dance choreographers as an on-stage musician or as a composer. 

‘Smearing’ is a sonic manifestation of the contemporary dance piece titled ‘Cryptic Bodies’: a collaborative work involving nine dance performers, conceived and choreographed by Patrik Kelemen in 2021. The performance was designed from its inception to have the music evolve independently.

Porteleki used the original material he created for the performance and in a massive post-production he added new dimensions to it by using lyrics, guitar and string arrangements, and different overdubbing instrumentations. Using mainly his drumming skills as the starting point, most of the tracks’ basics were recorded by himself in a big empty theater stage through one night. These improvisations later served as song structures, therefore the final songs have unusual metric, structural and aesthetic directions, constantly shifting between genres, yet remaining coherent. 

This creative process also served as a platform for him to develop a multi instrumental live solo project which varies from energetic drum blasts through melting guitar drones, frequency hunting electronics and pseudo stoner vocal improvisations.

‘Smearing’ touches a lot of Áron’s inspirations from stoner metal and teenage nu-metal fantasies to experimental electronics and various folk music traditions. Using all his creative forces during the production he’s playing around with slowed down viola recordings of his own with noisy guitar overlappings, wild free jazz drumming on top of fast tempo microtonal synths and different vocal characters. 
The album got a stunning mastering finish by London based engineer, producer and musician Dániel Sándor, a haunting cover artwork by leading Hungarian visual artist Csenge Vass, and lastly put into the hands of blindblindblind, a Hungarian experimental label founded and lead by a zen monk to be released in digital, on CD and on 12” vinyl on the 23rd of March, 2024.