Modular techno obsessive and dark pop connoisseur: Julia Bondar’s fourth studio album Bonding sounds like nothing else you’ll hear this year.     

Julia Bondar is a Ukrainian born, Barcelona based electronic music artist, singer, and songwriter. Her journey as a musician started when she was making demos for Endorphin.es modular synthesizers to help her partner, Andreas Zhukovsky, to promote and develop freshly engineered modules for his Endorphine.es brand.  Bondar soon became a co-founder of the brand and moved the company from Kiev, to Barcelona, where her obsession with modular synthesis truly took root. 

Prior to Bonding, Bondar has released three albums, the latest of which was 2020’s Industrial Symphony LP which demonstrated her innate ability to extract orchestral sounds from synthetic equipment. A blend of techno rhythms and dark pop, it paid tribute to Bondar’s idea of a modern industrial symphony, employing the powerful and unique characteristics of analog machines while also being harmoniously linked to the pleasant, danceable, and hypnotic atmosphere of industrial rhythms: themes that are explored further on this new album. 

Across nine distinct and engrossing tracks on Bonding, Bondar blends and plays with genre, from industrial, techno, electro, avant-garde pop, dark wave and more. Danceable and melodic, often moody and sinister, sometimes euphorically melancholic, she puts a unique stamp on every track she produces, giving the album a traceable through-line despite its myriad and often disparate influences and tones.  

Album opener Ruby Red sets the tone in dynamic fashion: a pummelling techno thumper that gives way to two further full on industrial techno bangers in Pleasure & Pain and Flamboyant – visceral, no-holds-barred cuts that see Bondar fully cut lose with her driving, highly energetic modular programming.  

From there the album drifts into perhaps its most self-reflective moment, with the intro to La neige et ses messes noires. This arresting track was made as a love-letter to French electro in collaboration with Maman Küsters, a French duo formed by Gaël Loison and Cyril Pansal, with Pansal penning the lyrics to Bondar’s music and Loison producing. This love of dark French electro is further explored on Obey: a haunting, mid-tempo slice of crushing electronica that simply demands your attention. 

The title track offers a brief respite from the intensity of the previous tracks, offering a space to move your body in a tribal, hypnotic dance. Antisocial is about embrace your true self, explored by a broken beat pattern and sidewinding synth lines that ebbd and flows between crushed drums and ethereal pads, and the broken beat structure is continued on the closing track In Flame: a gorgeous, expansive redemption offering the listener space to reflect. 

An arresting, beguiling listen from start to finish, Bonding is a call for emotional transformation, with Bondar evoking different states and feelings: starting from superficial but reaching to the deepest corner of your mind. This album is designed as a conversation between Bondar and her audience through the music and track names, a call for reflection and conscious approach to listening.

PREMIERE : Julia Bondar feat. Maman Kusters - La Neige Et Ses Messes Noires

The end

An odyssey into digital abysses.		

Under their silicon layers, machines have a soul. Inspired by the paths of Drexciya and Kraftwerk, I travelled unknown seas. At the helm of a thought pattern for freedom of movement, I recorded these five pieces without a safety net, in a direct and definitive outlet.

Day Of Sirens.
Irresistible monsters, the mermaids I met were terrible. Their digital chant was mesmerizing to 311Hz. I never could see, only feel their deadly presence.

Diving Network.
Dive into the murky waters of digital artifacts. Underwater was light, a black light - strobe, violent and intoxicating. Plunging deeper than I had dared before, I had access to a data network, organized as a nebula of algorithms.

Cycles Alert.
Embedded in this algorithmic network, I lost all control. Data flowed too fast, too powerful. It was impossible to resist. Accelerate. Go deeper into unconsciousness.

How Deep Is Too Deep part I

Buy on Bandcamp

Day Of Sirens

MRT006 - Mitchell Goor - The Self Destructive

HYPER OPAL MANTIS (MASTER)

PURPLE PHASE

Release date : Sept 6th 2019

A modern anthem, a call to action, a loving upsetter, 'Feral Rhythm' is a brave mantra for these trying times. The track consciously deepens the furrow of 'post-alternative industrial pop' that Louisahhh is digging, with diverse remixes from Manni Dee (warehouse rave roaring), Curses (new beat body musik) and RAAR co-founder Maelstrom (somewhere between Playgroup and Dopplereffekt).
Produced and mixed by Vice Cooler (of Peaches, Ladytron, XBXRX), 'Feral Rhythm' marks the first noise in a body of work from Louisahhh and Vice forthcoming over future months.

Louisahhh - Feral Rhythm

Written and Produced by Julia Bondar
Creative contributor: Nero Bellum
Recording and artwork by Andreas Zhukovsky
Mixed by Gaël Loison
Mastered by Alan Lockwood

Bandcamp

Julia Bondar - Fire feat. Nero Bellum (from Industrial Symphony LP)

Moon In Sagitarius

Concrete

https://soundcloud.com/gonza-sendon-biosca
https://soundcloud.com/aspectohumano
Buy Release: https://aspectohumano.bandcamp.com/album/ah008-asymetric80-chaos-theory
YouTube Stream: https://youtu.be/xHi6z7EI_ac

Debut release by Asymetric80. Music made during lockdown, a reflection of these uncertain times. From Apoptygma Berzerk to Covenant, with a genuine 'Valencia Sound' from early '90s.

Tracklist:

A1 - DARK LIGHTS
A2 - SO THE ECHO
A3 - DYSTOPIA
B1 - DEFECTED LOGIC
B2 - DESTROYED SYSTEM

ASYMETRIC80 - CHAOS THEORY

Defected Logic

PREMIERE: Asymetric80 - Defected Logic [Aspecto Humano]

Booking: booking@juliabondar.com
Management: production@endorphin.es

Julia Bondar is a Ukrainian born, Barcelona based electronic music artist, singer, and songwriter. Her journey as a musician started when she was making demos for Endorphin.es eurorack modular synthesizers to help her partner, Andreas Zhukovsky, the founder and developer of the Endorphine.es brand, to promote and demonstrate the possibilities of the freshly engineered modules for the market. Bondar soon became a co-founder of the brand and moved the company from Kiev, Ukraine, to Barcelona, Spain. This triggered her to delve into the modular synth scene and develop her knowledge of synthesizers amongst fellow artists who have grown exponentially over the years.

The inspiration of the modern underground movement after midnight resonates in Julia Bondar´s music and her sound employs the powerful and unique characteristics of analog machines while also being harmoniously linked to the pleasant, danceable, and hypnotic atmosphere of industrial rhythms. As a live act performer, she utilizes dynamic equipment to deliver raw power and an unforgettable feeling from the real electroacoustic instruments that resonates from stage to dancefloor.

Her debut album 'Blck Noir' was released in 2018 when she formed part of the duo Principal Uno together with Andreas Zhukovsky, and this record gained her notoriety for her singing and modular synthesizer performances. This album was her first endeavor to try to find herself as an artist in the electronic music scene and develop her sound, delivering a minimal, cold, melancholic yet dance-inducing vibe. As it was entirely made on eurorack modular synthesizers, ‘Blck Noir’ was featured in a magazine about new technologies in musical instruments 'Open Source' 2019.

In 2019, she transitioned to producing as a solo artist under her real name Julia Bondar, but still kept ties with her partner Zhukovsky, who creates and directs all music videos for her at the 'Endorphin.es Production' studio. This same year Bondar released her electro, downtempo album 'In My Neighborhood' on the renowned Detroit Underground label. The release was followed by videos for her tracks 'Queer' and 'Hail' shot by Zhukovsky and both tracks were also released on tapes which sold out in 2 weeks. Her inspiration for this album came from the early memories of her childhood spent in Eastern Europe.

In collaboration with Zhukovsky, cinematic visuals became an integral part of Bondar’s work that has completed the holistic idea of their purpose: to tell stories. In summer 2019, two of her singles 'Fleurs do Mal' and 'Dramatique Waters' that delivered minimal synth wave vibes were released along with accompanying music videos.

In December 2019, the French label 'Unknown Pleasure Records' reissued in CD format her best electro tracks. At the same time as this, Bondar continued to work on the development of her techno sound and in winter 2019 she published her techno EP 'I Want Forbidden' containing 3 tracks and a music video for her track 'Lust'.

Julia Bondar’s ‘Industrial Symphony’ LP released in September 2020 further explores her passion for modular synthesizers and her ability to extract ‘orchestral’ sounds from synthetic equipment. A blend of techno rhythms and dark pop, this album pays tribute to Bondar’s idea of a modern industrial symphony. In the end of 2020 that album was additionally released in as live version record.

2021 starts with the new 'Enchanted' single which was mixed and mastered by platinum record selling musician and record producer Glenn Morrison at his multi Grammy Award winning Alpine Studio Mastering.

Concrete

JULIA BONDAR

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