Karla Kvlt: The Noise Family

Patching Up

In these days, we are torn apart and drift further from each other while simultaneously desperately holding tight to something we want to believe in. Yet, the division is increasing, the social climate is approaching a new ice age, and overall hardly any body seems to be really about this. Should we maybe let got instead? Give ourselves into the stream and vortex? We could at least try, could we not?

Well, this is what Karla Kvlt and their debut album Thundermother instruct us to do, on a musical level at least. For thirty-seven minutes, the trio from Hamburg makes their listeners float between the extremes: Doom, Sludge and Noise on the one hand, Dream Pop and Shoegaze on the other, massive heaviness in riffing and rhythm clashes with bare fragility.

It’s A Family Thing

Karla Kvlt are indeed a special band. Vocalist and bass player Teresa Matilda Köberle-Wientjes is married to Johann Victor Wientjes (drums and synths). The band’s third member Markus E. Lipka (guitars and voice) is Johann’s father and therefore Teresa’s father-in-law. So, many musicians in this world will know the struggle of how to balance family time on the one hand and activities such as rehearsals, recording sessions, concerts etc on the other. For Karla Kvlt, all band activity is family time simultaneously.

And maybe this special character is what defines Karla Kvlt. People who have many things in common but still import their own ideas and influences can create a wide-range artistic synergy. Furthermore, the level of trust that exists in this constellation of family members and in-laws allows forms of freedom and clarity which many other bands lack.

Circles, Kvlts, and Beliefs

As heavy and brachial Thunderhunter may appear at first sight, it does yet contain plenty of meditational potential. Karla Kvlt’s music is dreamy and swampy, emotional and bold, earth-shaking and charming. The trio manages to split atoms and reorganise them as they draw bridges between 0 and 1, connecting binary oppositions. This noise is art!
9/10 Mangoes