Translating electronica into acoustics is what one could title the work of Sven Kacirek. The Hamburg-based drummer, producer, author and academic uses the means of manual percussion to produce micro-polyphonic rhythms, usually known to be generated by electro-acoustic sources. And yet he has long left the drum set as his workplace. Softly he taps and strokes on materials such as wood, glass and paper, plays prepared marimba and piano and thus creates a very unique form of repetetive music, minimal yet lyrical. Kacirek merges popular with intellectual music, referencing drum and bass as much as post rock. He jumps from collaborations with Stefan Schneider from To Rococo Rot to a liaison with Kenyan musicians Ogoya Nengo and Joseph Oganga which led to the fascinating album The Kenya Sessions: A collection of recordings not only organically merging sounds of tradition and modernity but also those of coincidence and calculation. In his live shows Kacirek improvises with meditative calm, captures percussive patterns within loops and samples which he layers and melts  into a pleasantly hypnotizing ensemble. We suspect both The Notwist and Philip Glass being his fans.

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