Ah! Kosmos (aka Başak Günak) is a sound designer, producer and multi-instrumentalist born in Istanbul. She releases her second album, Beautiful Swamp, via Compost Records. Günak’s music captures what she has processed and overcome in her life between Istanbul and Berlin. The listener not only explores soundscapes but multi-layered emotions each layer drawing them further into the swamp...

Beautiful Swamp is a melting pot of ideas and half-thoughts that have carefully and lovingly been given life to. Challenging genre boundaries, Günak uses polyrhythms and folktronic instruments to build a mystical world of sound into which one can sink and be carried away.

Just when you think you're getting to know what the album's all about, Günak throws a curve ball knocking you off balance. The industrial trance sound of 'June' shouldn't fit well with the indie pop feel of 'We Can't Fall Off A Mountain' and 'Paradise'. But it does, and beautifully so. In addition, 'It Rains Without You' sounds cinematic in its approach and delivery.

These 10 tracks (33 min, 26 sec) are like opening 10 unusually shaped presents and receiving 10 incredible surprises.

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Nick Smithson