LONGITAL

Longital – Teraz

Slovakian electro-poppers Longital are bidding to further their attempts to spread what they like to call the “Slavic New Wave” with Teraz, their third studio album.

Formed back in 2001 as Dlhe Diely, the Bratislava duo of Daniel Salontay and Shina later changed their band title to make it easier for Anglophones to pronounce – apparently both names are derived from the same hill in the Slovak capital.

While both Slovak natives, the pair actually met in the US in 1997 when Daniel was studying jazz at Cleveland’s Tri-C College and Shina was a graphic designer with singing ambitions. They returned to Bratislava to form the band and set up their own indie record label, Slnko Records.

The group is fresh from a trio of dates in support of The Swell Season in Bratislava, Warsaw and Wroclaw, during which the Irish-Czech duo reportedly took quite a liking to the track A to je všetko / Is that all on the new record. Earlier this year, Longital also played a set at the influential South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Longital’s music draws heavily from modern technology to enhance the pair’s guitar, bass and vocals. The resulting sound has an indie-jazz feel, at turns warming the atmosphere and drawing you into haunting soundscapes. Both capture the listener even without understanding the lyrics (although they are helpfully translated in the liner notes.)

The Velvet Violin reckons fans of exotic folk tunes may be drawn to Longital’s cosy sound, especially if they can dig music without understanding the words, something which is not necessarily a block on global success, as Icelanders Sigur Rós have proved.

Alternatively, check them out for yourself at the Prague launch party for Teraz at the Rock Café in Národní trída Dec. 8 at 8 p.m., tickets 190 Kc.

Longital – Teraz
Release: Oct. 22 2010
Purchase points: Available on digital download from major outlets, price $8.90. Physical distribution in the Czech Republic by Panther Distribution.

Posted by Bill Lehane on December 4, 2010
Source: Bill Lehane for The Prague Post, 4 Dec 2010 - The Prague Post, 4.12.2010

My love of Slovakian band LONGITAL (www.longital.com) has been well recorded in Continental Drift. Daniel Salontay and Shina Lo are two equally talented musicians who perfectly complement each other’s muse. New album Teraz*****(SLNKO RECORDS) is a strange and beautiful thing.

Strange in its originality and beautiful in its profundity, this is music like you have never heard before: sounds and melodies from out of the air like gifts from the gods; rhythms from the depths of a soul like the varying heartbeats of lovers; lyrics of honest, naive expression like the truth means everything.
Longital have made an album that is the sound of true creative freedom. They have found the point where the spirit of childhood invention is compromised by and lost to adult consideration. Teraz looks nowhere for inspiration other than inwardly to the very moment of creation, and then it tries to maintain that precious moment for as long as possible. This is the music of life with the hot red blood of passion for living pumping through its heart. I’ve listened to Teraz over and over again but I recognise not a single note or idea I have heard before. This music is not of the past and neither is it of the future. This is music of the moment. Teraz is the Slovakian word for ‘now’.
Source: R2 magazine 1/2011, Continental Drift column by Eddie Cooney - R2 magazine 1/2011

Taking the role of modern jugglers, the guitarist Daniel Salontay and the bass-guitarist Shina depart their homebase in the Dlhé diely apartments in Bratislava, SK, to cruise around Europe, spreading the notion of the “east beat”, a music style they have compiled from their talent, constant drive for searching, and the taste for preserving the traditional forms.
The combination of a versatile guitarist who has been exposed to jazz, blues and alternative rock, and a female lyrical music poet, who might seem fragile, yet she does manage to steer Slovakia's most valued indie label of Slnko Records, certainly does bring original fruit. The specific Longital world is a place where the means of classic music styles meet the electronics-assisted search for new ways. This is a world that is able to draw the listeners in with a force that prevents the return into the boring reality. Their music has been triumphant in attracting scores of passionate listeners through the records (see the latest studio album, Gloria, and the most recent accomplishment, the remix album of Revoyaged) and concerts which may seem peaceful on the surface, yet accumulated emotions are brewing beneath.
- United Islands of Prague Festival about Longital
- United Islands of Prague Festival Bulletin

“One can happily enjoy the music of Slovak duo Longital (formerly Dlhé Diely) without ever considering how smart it is. On Výprava / Voyage, gently bouncing bass, careful electric guitar, and rich vocals make for poppy, cleanly-produced indie rock with a touch of the blues that is easy on the ears. Peel it apart, however, and each piece is its own delight. Daniel Salontay doesn't waste an extra note on oud and electric guitar, and applies a bow to his strings with great effect. He begins the album's capping track, “Na mori” (On the Sea), with a sublimely delicate loop of notes that harks back to his almost Zen arrangements on earlier albums September and Tu. Partner Šina then falls in with a signature bass line; full and melancholy, with a hint of jazz. Her vocals, meanwhile, emphasize melody, successfully disarming any listener's frustrations at not understanding the Slovak lyrics (translations come in the booklet). Salontay, who recently won a contest for remixing a track by Coldcut, built the drum loops on the band's “third member“ Laptop Xi Di Nim. Together, the duo, which manages its own label, Slnko records, in Bratislava has produced an album more rambunctious than their previous, excellent Sveta diely, and proven again why they're a mainstay of the Czech and Slovak alternative scene.”
– review of album Vyprava/Voyage by Eric Smillie, Signal to Noise US
- Signal to NoiseMagazine, US

WHEN TWO continents collide the result is more than earthquakes and mountains. The moment they brush against one another, the lives of two separate landmasses join in a burst of exchange and evolution. Two worlds end and a new one is born. Salontay and Shina come together, allowing artistic ideas to cross freely from one side to the other, setting off an explosion of new growth. It is nice to know that not all tectonic meetings end in disaster.
- review of album Continents, The Slovak Spectator
- The Slovak Spectator

Universal soundtrack to dreaming
Urban, Lyric, Crossover!
Dream’n Bass
Heart Beat

- winning short descriptions of Longital music by myspace fans

****

"From the position of cosmopolitan music designers, Longital paint their songs rather than compose, spreading their imagination on the canvas of life, nature, urban traffic lights, or just ordinary human rituals.
.., who wouldn’t want to be drawn through the landscape of wild cubist shapes, to smell electrified expressionist flowers and travel though country that is real but yet distant from anything comprehensible?
… the music of Longital is more relaxing than worrying, but it can also invoke doubts about the reality around us. In your imagination it creates a whole new world, an imaginative and dream-like one
…the message of Longital is : don’t worry, you’ve got wings…"

- review of the album Vyprava/Voyage on www.freemusic.cz

*****

"The instant appeal to play the CD again will make you realize that the forty two minutes of Longital’s Voyage took you really somewhere. The contrast between the closing eleven-minute track “On the Sea” and the opening three-minute folk tune “It’s Time to Go” is like waking up from a deeply intense dream with a sharp light…
Forget about the genres and set on a voyage with Longital, If you are just slightly perceptive listeners, you will not regret that."

- review of the album Vyprava on Czech radio web www.rozhlas.cz
*****
"This album is an enormous unknown ocean and one can easily dive in it and make great discoveries.
The mere fact that Salontay regularly plays his guitar with bow creates endless wave of melodic shifts. The samples employed on the album do not break the delicate musical texture and the beats make the compositions flow and develop their stories.

The genres meet on a thin ice, but it is solid enough not to crack. Shina’s lyrics are crystal clear and leave enough space for all the various meanings that they evoke.

Quoting Ray Bradbury’s “The Fog Horn” in the closing title “On the Sea” finishes the whole musical voyage. It will not leave you on a lonely island, no need to feel like a lost part of the puzzle. Helping hand (and also map) into the inner world is given by the beautiful digipack cover with drawings."

- review of the album Vyprava www.musicserver.cz

*****

"One of the most notable revelations on Slovak world/indie scene, duo Longital previously known as Dlhé Diely, has released a new album Gloria. For the lovers of Bjork, Sigur Ros, but also Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova (The Swell Season), Longital has brought a surprise that is jaw-dropping and breath-taking. If these two charming Bratislavians have caught your attention before, be informed that their new album is slightly different from the previous one and has reached exceptional quality and uplifting feeling."

- review of album Gloria - http://rockmag.cz/clanky/longital-gloria/

*****

"…while the previous album Voyage was driven by the explorer’s hunger and occasionally fed with darker and expressive undercurrents, the new album Gloria turns inward, tells stories about inner journeys and makes the feelings shine. You are advised to dim the light while listening.
… truly positive report about the state of two loving souls (no pathos!). To put it short, Shina and Daniel are again a bit different and again excellent…"

- review of album Gloria -www.filofon.com

*****

"… the music of Longital is inner and visual at the same time. You are invited to close your eyes and let yourself drift on the sea waves evoked by the sound of the language used (I am a Blue Sea). Anatomical ballad „Red and Blue“ is an appealing expression of endless conflicts between the head and the heart.
Longital use voice not just for communicating their poetry, it often is an instrument of its own. Slovak language is told to have no export potential. Daniel and Shina neglect this and give the foreign listener an opportunity to perceive the voice as a musical painting.
Despite Gloria was recorded in the living room, it has no weak points and a great export potential."

- review of album Gloria – Hudba.sk
http://www.hudba.sk/

*****

"Undoubtedly, on Slovak songwriting scene Longital have gone the farthest. That is why they successfully perform around whole Europe. It is good to see that they export something worth exporting. As the year 2008 is coming to an end, we have not witnessed more of such a strong recordings. Gloria is a serious candidate for an album of the year. "

- review of album Gloria – foremost Slovak daily Sme (www.sme.sk)
http://kultura.sme.sk/c/4173593/longital-si-vystacia-sami.html

*****

"Gloria reflects the best of what you have ever appreciated on Longital and their previous albums. Moreover, we witness a shift to new territories of joy where the blue sea brings bottles of unspoken messages about discoveries and drawings of beauty discovered on their voyage."

- review of album Gloria – Music Server
http://musicserver.cz/clanek/23776/Longital-Gloria/#
- various

"Slovakia's Longital (www.longital.com) exist in a place all their own making somewhere between Bjork and Eurythmics. Daniel Salontay and Shina Lo previously played with their band Dlhé Diely. They now perform as a trio though the third member is a laptop computer named Xi Di Nim. Their music is based on a marriage of intricate synthetic soundscapes and organic human warmth born out of the collaboration of lovers.

Lates album Gloria**** (SLNKO RECORDS) is a progression and slight departure from their previous work, Výprava/Voyage***** (SLNKO RECORDS). Gloria further explores the potential of the vocals as an instrument and there are frequent experimental passages of expressive singing without words. Many of the tracks have a relaxed, trance-like quality and suggest images of journeys both intimate and distant. Longital's website features streaming sound files from both albums and English translations on each page.

Read the original article here:
http://www.longital.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=〈=en

www.rock-n-reel.co.uk - Rock n'Reel UK, Sept 2009

Slovak vocalist Shina Lo's dreamy, sultry vocals provide much of the lure for Longital's music, with the rest of the band's appeal coming via an ambitious mix of Daniel Salontay's crisp, crackling guitar lines and a wealth of colors generated from Xi-di-nim's fortress of synthesizers, turntables and various devices. Longital's been around since 2001, though they adopted their current name five years ago. One minute they sound like a French lounge act, the next a spacy ambient crew. Longital also funnels other influences like rockabilly, pop and rock through tunes that sometimes extend as long as seven minutes, though most unfold in charning three to four minute montages. Their music has a catchy quality, and when Lo and Salontay harmonize in either acoustic or electronic settings their interaction adds energy to the proceedings. (March 9).
- Nashville Scene

SXSW 2010: Longital

* Posted on Mar 9th 2010 1:55PM by Jesse Costello

On paper, Slovakian electronic rock duo Longital invite comparisons to Nordic brethren Sigur Ros, playing bowed guitars and singing in a language understood by few outside of their homeland. The similarities end there, however. Schooled as a jazz musician and steeped in the traditional music of Iran and India, Daniel Salontay joined together with poet and folk singer Shina to create a sound informed by music from far-flung reaches of the globe but still distinguished by its Eastern European provenance. Spinner spoke with Salontay about his band's upcoming appearance at SXSW, their first, in support of their new album, 'Gloria.'

Describe your sound in your own words.

We play the soundtrack to a psychedelic version of the happy end of the world, where fish fly over the rivers filled not with water, but with music streaming into the seas. Some say that we sound like Camille and Spoon smoking around a Slavic midsummer bonfire -- like Animal Collective with a European pedigree. We flit between the old and the new, always traveling light and always returning to a bluff above the Danube River that inspired our name and musical adventures.

How did your band form?

We were a couple before we formed the band. I was a jazz guitarist with an eclectic musical background and Shina was a poet and folk singer. We started working on our own music together in 2000 and quickly formed a four-piece band only to lose two drummers in quick succession. Even though it looked like a disaster from the outside, the situation showed us how to become self-sustainable. Now we can travel to gigs by train or plane with just a few small cases and what we jokingly call our virtual bandmate, Xi Di Nim [minidisc spelled backwards]. It's funny because sometimes concert organizers don't get it. They reserve a room for him or ask if the Japanese guy in the band is vegetarian.

What are your musical influences?

Shina's most important influence is music created by women, namely Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell and Suzanne Vega. I discovered I was a musician by browsing through the records of my parents and listening to everything from Yma Sumac, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to early fusion music by Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and Chick Corea. Our recent musical influences lie in personal encounters with musicians whom we've met while touring and became friends with, including wonderful people like [the Swell Season's] Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

You're named after "Lange Teile" -- the name of a hill in your hometown of Bratislava -- but does the word Longital hold any greater significance?

The Slovak name of our home base, Dlhe Diely, became the band's first moniker, but led to some wacky cross-cultural miscommunications: We became Diddly Diddly in Finland and Dilly Dally in Ireland. Unsure of what to do, we stumbled across the old German name for our home at the intersection of Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic: Longital, the long valley. When we Googled the word Longital in the beginning, there were just three references. The first two references were about the history of the hill and the third was a scientific paper on the physics of elementary particles in which the word longital was used to denote behavior of excited electrons in an electromagnetic field!

What's your biggest vice?

I love good French wine and an unpasteurized sheep cheese called Bryndza, which is produced in Slovakia. Shina's vice is reading everything that has ever been put into words and on paper, especially spiritual books.

What's in your tour survival kit?

We always take along Merino wool clothes made in New Zealand by a company called Icebreaker. They keep us warm while touring, look good and are extremely durable. My suitcase is always full of electronic gear like cables and preamps, so I stuff my clothes in with my guitar. In our mental survival kit we try to carry the ability, or at least the willingness, to accept situations as they arise and read them as messages from some invisible beings or better selves who are trying to teach us and guide us. We call them coincidences.

Which current popular artist would you most like to meet?

Maybe Brian Eno. I read that he doesn't drive a car -- same as us. And Daniel Lanois, my guitar hero.

What artist would you like to meet in any era?

Paul Klee. I love his art and how he merged painting and drawing. There is something very musical in his approach to working with colors and textures. I'd also love to read his diaries -- he was really painting the music for me.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Vintage guitars. I just keep stumbling across guitars with a story and they're often in a very desolate condition. I can't help but to save them, buy them out from slavery and bring them to life. They reward me with some amazing pieces of music. I found the guitar I'll be playing at SXSW in a flea market, covered with tiger-pattern wallpaper.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

Last year, we played a barn in the middle of nowhere on the border between the Czech Republic and Austria. There were bonfires to keep the audience warm and two amazing VJs who used old overhead projectors to create visuals by cutting out pieces of paper and colored transparent plastic. During the middle of the show, a huge thunderstorm shook the building and a man on a white horse burst in, completely soaked. He parked his horse by the bar and the animal quietly sipped beer from abandoned glasses for the duration of the show. I wish I had a camera, but maybe it's better we do not have this documented. Memories of that night make up a movie that I sometimes watch in my head.

Say you meet Sigur Ros in a dark alley. Who wins in a bowed guitar competition?

Meeting Sigur Ros in a dark alley would be magic. All I can say is that we are using heavier double bass bows, while Jonsi of Sigur Ros is using a cello bow, so it would be a power play on the side of Longital!
03/09/10 - Spinner

By DENNY DYROFF, Staff Writer

Longital is a hilly area in Bratislava. It's also the name of a rock band from Bratislava. So far, the group has released seven albums, with the latest being "Gloria."

Tonight, Longital will make its Philadelphia debut at the Khyber. The band includes Daniel Salontay on guitars, bow and vocals; his wife, Shina Lo, on bass and vocals; and virtual member Xi Di Nim.

"We started seriously back in 2000," Salontay said during a phone interview from his home in the Slovak Republic's capital. "Before that, I had been in America, studying jazz and blues guitar in Cleveland.

"At first, it was me on guitar and Shina on voice. Gradually, she started to play bass. We were a four-piece band for a while. People came and left. Then we found ourselves without a drummer a few times. So we decided not to use drummers anymore.

"In addition to playing guitar, I work with electronics. 'Xi Di Nim' is a backwards spelling of 'minidisc.' We discovered that we could travel around Europe together and make a living with our music. We play our instruments and make all these sounds with electronics."

Salontay plays guitar in a traditional style and uses a bow to play his electric guitar. Another addition to the sound is a machine Salontay uses called the Lemur Jazz Mutant.

"For me, guitar is a percussive instrument - a sharp attack and a quick delay," he said. "I was looking for something sustainable, so I began using a violin bow. Now I use a double bass bow.

"The Lemur Jazz Mutant, which is made in France, has a touch screen controller with its own operating system. It can detect movement and touch from 10 points and send actions from the screen to the computer. The software generates the sounds. It gives us the freedom of designing our interface and teaching Lemur how to make our music."

What: Longital

When: March 4, 9 p.m.

Where: Khyber, 56 S. Second St., Philadelphia - Daily Local News Philadelphia, PA

The Deal: Straight outta Bratislava comes an ethereal sounding duo singing romantic harmonies, beautifully mannered folk-ish tunes, sometimes transformed into up-tempo, electronic raves. Slovakia's best-loved indie group is touring America and looking to break into a larger demographic, bigger at least than its native Slovak Republic. Melancholy yet upbeat, this is soothing, gorgeous, exotic and rocking.

The Good: They have a grander sound than a mere duo. Their sampling and their virtual bandmates – one a touch-screen interface and the other a drum machine – makes for exciting music containing real contrast and high drama. Picture title cut "Gloria" – an end of the world scenario complete with fish flying over flowing rivers full of music, streaming out to sea. Cut three, "Berlin – Grenoble – Arles," morphs into full-blown orchestral sounds before returning to its original acoustic dynamic. It's handsomely packaged with lyrics printed in both English and Slovak.

The Bad: Slovak is not the most poetic-sounding language yet the overall effect is atmospheric and compelling, like their home base on a ridge overlooking the Danube in Central Europe. Sounds nearly English-like as their native tongue has a similar cadence.

The Verdict: Can be a most pleasant surprise for listeners. Playing last month's South By Southwest festival just might provide the breakthrough they're looking for. If music from Iceland like Bjork and Sigur Ros connects with listeners, there's no reason Slavic soul music can't do the same. Truth, beauty, sadness, it's the Slavic way.

http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/cd_review_longital_s_gloria/Content?oid=919542 - Creative Loafing

March 21, 2010

The South by Southwest Music Festival boasts almost 2,000 bands, booked into more than 85 venues in a little over four days. And this year, 549 of those bands are from outside of the United States.

NPR's Felix Contreras went to Austin to check out some of those bands, hanging out in bars and nightclubs when he wasn't producing for NPR Music.

"Well, I'm taking one for the team, Liane," he says.

From the corner of 6th and Brazos in Austin, he told host Liane Hansen about a few international acts, including a Slovakian duo called Longital.

"The band is a husband-wife duo — the wife plays bass and the husband plays electric guitar," Contreras says. "And he manipulates an electronic gizmo that plays pre-recorded beats that range from an African feel, to hip-hop, to good old fashioned rock 'n' roll."

Megan Washington is an Australian singer and songwriter who records as Washington. Contreras spoke to her, and found that she had a unique perspective about how SXSW works for musicians.

"Someone said to me that South by Southwest is like getting pregnant," Washington says. "You don't find out until a month later if anything actually happened. So we just come over and we have a good time. And then a month later, everyone recovers from their hangover, and they shuffle through their business cards, and they might see you — or they might not. And that's OK — better luck next year."

According to Contreras, six SXSW bookers each cover a specific region of the world, looking for acts to perform at the festival. The woman who scours Latin America for music said that collectively, they listened to over 10,000 CDs.

Matt Sonzala is in charge of those bookers. He said that while these bands may do everything they can to get to the festival, there's still no guarantee that they can sidestep the indie-rock focus that South by Southwest is known for. It can be difficult to get festival attendees to overcome that reputation and take a chance on something different.

"I would like to see more of the people who attend South by Southwest really take that seriously and think about, 'Where can I see something I've never heard before, something I've never seen before,'" Sonzala says. "We have a showcase with Maybe Mars Records out of China — all very diverse, kinda indie-rock, weird electronic stuff. When I heard the bands, I thought 'This is from China?' That blew me away and I can't wait to see them live.

"And I hope more people feel that way, and are interested in not just chasing the next big thing, and the big hype, but finding out what's really going on on the either side of the world. Because there is some really, really interesting and incredible music being made all over this planet."

But international bands do manage to get a career boost from their visits to Austin. The Colombian outfit Bomba Estereo, which makes what Contreras called "outer-space urban cumbia, " enjoyed a breakout year last year.

"Their record label rep told me they had a very good 2009 — they had tours, CD sales, radio play largely because of the impression they made on record execs and agents during their showcase last year," This year they had a very plum slot opening for a very popular Mexican rock band."
03/21/10

Link
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124969321 - NPR Weekend Edition