Karen Gwyer - Pikku-Kokki

We last featured Karen Gwyer for a frost-bitten rework of Vanilla Hammer’s Cro Magnum on patten’s Kaleidoscope label. Later in February, she’ll follow patten by releasing debut album ‘Needs Continuum’ on No Pain In Pop.

Brought up in a household awash with the classical sounds of Chopin and Shostakovich, in the late ’80s/early 90s Gwyer was enticed by a low budget TV show showing dancers flailing about to first-wave Detroit Techno. Years later, and she found herself “operating under the looming deadline of childbirth” just as her first album was also coming into existence.

Pikku-Kokki, the first track shared from ‘Needs Continuum’, is a nimble-footed slow-burner: swelling up as tickling samples of whispered voices gradually enter the fray. The accompanying visual features circles and squares pulsating along with the beat hypnotically – and the whole thing captures an enticing air of open-ended, unresolved possibility.

No Pain In Pop will release ‘Needs Continuum’ on 25h February