‘Tigersapp’ is the debut album from folktonica artist Szymon (pronounced Shimon).
From the opening track ‘Golden’ through to the final note of ‘Polen’ this album is twelve tracks of lush and beautiful music.
‘Golden’ is filled with warm guitars, gentle beats and a vocal that’s dreamy and blurry. It sets the template for a collection of tunes that range between just over two minutes in length through to four minutes. Perfect slices of dream pop.
There is a strong similarity between all the tracks on this album, each is subtly different but they overall sound change doesn’t change, it just morphs into a slightly different variation. It’s like you’re sailing down a fast moving river with different ebbs and flows and you wind through the landscape.
A few tracks are instrumental, or vocals are dropped so deep in the mix they no longer take centre stage, adding to the sense of journey are you work your way through the album.
It’s one of those records that you’ll put on and just leaving playing around in circles, repetitive listening is highly likely.
Szymon Borzestowski was on the verge of signing a record deal with EMI records when he was 19 years old, but struggling with depression he shelved the project. A few years later at the age of 23 he took his own life.
Now three years after Syzmon’s death, and seven years after he first began working with a record company the album has been completed by his family members. It certainly has a timeless quality.
It sounds like it was made for a lazy Sunday afternoon on Triple J. There are some vocal similarities to artists like Bon Iver, and also similar to Badly Drawn Boy.
It’s reminiscent of the late Nick Drake, another singer songwriter that battled depression in the early 1970s, but this is much more upbeat than anything Drake ever put out.
A gorgeous album that will undoubtedly collect a stack of awards and be on many people’s ‘Album of the Year’ lists at the end of 2015.
‘Tigersapp’ by Syzmon was released on August 21st. Win a copy of the album at our Giveaways page.
Graeme Watson
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