Narval ‚Chitin‘ OUT NOW

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Narval is the Berlin-based duo of Peter Strickmann and Evgenija Wassilew. Working with everyday objects, self-built wind and percussion instruments, feedback systems, and small-scale electronics such as radios, smartphones, mini-synths and dictaphones, they develop each performance in close response to its location. From a wide palette of possible tools, only a small selection is chosen each time, allowing a limited set of sounds to create a shifting sense of place and duration. The performance space, with its architectural, social and acoustic characteristics, becomes a collaborator, shaping the sequence of musical moments and gestures.

The recordings on Chitin were made in the village of Schöppingen in Münsterland. Here, Narval’s approach was less scenic and more spontaneous. Birds and insects moved in and out of frame. A church gave up some of its ghosts.

Floor and Drop were recorded in two old farmhouses at Künstlerdorf Schöppingen during June, July and August 2025. Brictius was recorded in the local parish church of St. Brictius and forms part of the larger work Trotoire, first performed earlier this year at Galerie Adlershof in Berlin. Corn was recorded partly in a sculptor’s studio at Künstlerdorf and partly inside the surrounding cornfields that define much of the Münsterland landscape.

The title refers to chitin, a naturally occurring complex sugar found in the cell walls of fungi and the exoskeletons of insects and crustaceans. Hard yet soft, protective yet permeable, it recalls the surface of magnetic tape as much as the textures of the rural environment. These qualities resonate through the album’s intimate and tactile sound world.

Formed in 2018 during a residency at Titanik Galerie in Turku, Finland, Narval have since developed site-specific performances for venues and occasions including Errant Sound, ausland and Spoiler Aktionsraum in Berlin, konnektor Forum für Künste in Hannover, and the festival No One Belongs Here More Than You at Saarländische Galerie, Berlin.