Don’t be misled by the title – “Winter” is no frostbitten retreat. Rather, it’s the glint of sunlight catching on the last patch of ice, the first breath of spring when the cold still lingers in the lungs. Nestled as the B2 cut on “The Ultimate Herrings Grooves”, Electrodynamique’s latest offering on Lis Sarroca’s Maai Records, “Winter” floats in that rare, radiant space between nostalgia and emergence – an aural photograph developing in real time.
Downtempo in tempo but high in emotional wattage, “Winter” trades the brute force of club dynamite for something more crystalline, more poised – a memory chiseled into form. The breakbeat rhythm stumbles gracefully, like someone waking from a deep dream, while icy synths trace delicate shapes in the air, cool to the touch but glowing faintly from within. Each sound is placed with intention, as though unearthed rather than produced – remnants of the early 2000s electro and synth-pop scenes, polished but not sanitized.
And yet, “Winter” is no exercise in vintage worship. It hums with life, glimmers with care – the unmistakable mark of someone who’s not just revisiting old sketches but breathing into them anew. It’s a track that doesn’t beg to be played out at peak time; it beckons you inward, pulls you closer, invites you to remember something you were never quite sure happened in the first place. There’s a quiet majesty to it, this sense of stillness in motion, of frozen water beginning to run.
With “Winter”, Electrodynamique – the elusive alter ego of Kirill Rem – continues to explore the emotional bandwidth of electro-infused storytelling. And while it may sit at the tail end of the EP, this track feels like a beginning. A thaw. A shift. A promise that the silence is temporary, and the dance – in whatever form – will return.
Words by Holger Breuer
Torture the Artist 