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Albums we’ve liked in 2018: Lonker See’s ‘One Eye Sees Red’

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Trippy things are happening in Poland, judging from Kraków-based label Instant Classic. Since 2012, the independent imprint has become a go-to for experimental sounds of all kinds, from free jazz to heavy drone to spacey synth and beyond. There might be no better place to begin exploring the catalog than the April album from psychedelic quartet Lonker See.

One Eye Sees Red features two long pieces—18 and 17 minutes long, respectively—followed by a five-minute title track that serves as a palate-cleansing encore after the wild rides of its predecessors. Opener “Lilian Gish” finds drummer Michael Gos, bassist Joanna Kucharska, guitarist Bartosz “Boro” Borowski and saxophonist/synth man Tomasz Gadecki starting subdued, gradually piling on layers and eventually teetering on the edge of total abandon, all without surrendering their melodic instincts or rhythmic foundation. “Solaris Pt. 3 & 4” launches as a chiming Sonic Youth scene-setter before Kucharska begins chanting somewhere in the distance, Gadecki pipes in with hypnotic sax runs and the music takes a series of increasingly propulsive turns. If you close your eyes, you can almost see the Baltic Sea grooving.

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