Bad Vibes in Mushroom Forest is the second official solo album by Berlin-based musician Jana Sotzko. While the debut Drift (2019) presented as an introverted inventory of a state of ambiguity and aimlessness, Bad Vibes takes clearer directions: it moves into the forest, under the microscope, on the deck of the research ship. A bit of the melancholy and doubt remain, but curiosity and a joy in the fantastic prevail as a form of confused energy and translate into jazz-influenced experimental pop songs.
The 9 songs form a cohesive soundscape that, while on its surface expressing a connection with nature, is interspersed throughout with traces of memory and remnants of technology that in its density is more soothing than repulsive. Folklore and mysticism are present in many song titles, and lyrics—for the first time also partly in German—are interwoven with the banal and everyday to form psychedelic collages. "Hoch leben die Moneren" is influenced by minimal music as much as it is Krautrock and tells of a seemingly senseless research trip on the ocean; "Museum der Angst" describes the familiar nightmare of being locked alone in a natural history museum at night. Despite everything, there is also consolation: the moon is only the sun in drag and, anyway, death has seen enough for today ("Birthdays").
The album was first written and recorded by Jana Sotzko in Berlin and Geneva and then, like Drift, completed in Pristina, Kosovo and in a Kosovar mountain hut in collaboration with local producer Dritero Nikqi. On their third collaboration, they shared once again their enthusiasm for herbaceous synth jams, jazz rhythms, and small-scale cinematic soundscapes.
credits
released April 1, 2022
Music, lyrics, instruments: Jana Sotzko
Additional instruments: Dritero Nikqi
Recorded in Geneva and Berlin by Jana Sotzko and in Pristina by Dritero Nikqi
Production and mixing: Dritero Nikqi at Studio C, Pristina
Mastering: Gavin Weiss
Drums on 1, 2, 6, and 8: Nesim "Balle" Maxhuni
Vocals on 6, background vocals on 2: Karen Thompson
Guitar on 2: Bernardo Sousa
Flutes on 1 and 6: Hilà Lahav
Cover illustration: Ronja Fischer
Design and typography: Eloise Leigh