Lenhart Tapes

About

" Looping magic on a Walkman "

Those acquainted with the Balkans know that folk music is firmly intertwined in more contemporary genres, so the merging of the region’s rich folk heritage and the echoes of Yugoslavia’s legendary 1980s punk and industrial scenes in the Lenhart Tapes project comes as no real surprise. In fact, the blending of folk with contemporary sounds is certainly not new, but Lenhart Tapes’ unique way of going about it infuses the music with something special.

Vladimir Lenhart, the driving force behind the project, draws on his grandfather Ján’s Slovak folk song renditions, a product of the 1950s and the musical culture of Yugoslavia. He uses a mix of old tapes and industrial sounds to create a sonic landscape that’s both raw and enchanting, manipulating the recordings live on multiple tape players. There’s something proto-hip hop about the whole thing, but if it hadn’t been for classically trained musician and ethnomusicologist Tijana Stanković, the project might never have gone to the next level. It was her encyclopaedic knowledge, vocals and violin that pushed the band into new directions.

Utilising hypnotic Walkman recordings, the squeal of their tape a folk sound in its own right for those of a certain age, the duo’s resulting collaboration combines industrial rhythmic loops and folk sounds in a way that’s simultaneously gritty and graceful. Lenhart Tapes’ second album, ‘Dens’ (released on the 10^th of November 2023), features an expanded cast of vocalists and showcases a mature sound that’s dense yet spacious, taking listeners on a captivating auditory journey to a new world. An uncompromising one, yes, but one where harsh unfamiliarity is tempered by sounds passed from generation to generation – as Lenhart Tapes might one day pass their own music forward, too.