Raphael Rogiński: Žaltys review | Jude Rogers' folk album of the month

(Unsound)
This searching, soulful release conjures up the spirit of summers spent by the lake and in the forest

Named after a Lithuanian snake spirit that supposedly brings families health and prosperity, Polish guitarist Raphael Rogiński’s hypnotic new album is filled with the heat and light of summer. His materials are the eastern European folk forms he first heard in the forests and lakes of the Poland-Lithuania borders during childhood summer holidays, and the memories formed there (he writes dreamily of floating at night in a boat with his brother in the liner notes).

Created with Warsaw musician/producer Piotr Zabrodzki, and mastered by Oren Ambarchi collaborator Joe Talia, these 12 tracks show how an electric guitar, amped up for reverb and resonance, can evoke a sense of wonder at natural history (many of the track titles are the Lithuanian names of flowers). Still, you can hear echoes of Rogiński’s first instrument, his grandmother’s Uzbek kamānche (a three-stringed lyre), in the gorgeous Paprastasis Amalas (which translates as Common Mistletoe) and the gnarlier Pelkinis Gailis (Marsh Rosemary), his raw, finger-picked style lingering longingly over the minor-key laments.