Kotra is Dmytro Fedorenko, Ukranian hero and prolific producer of own brand of minimisto-agresso electronica. Continues to operate the Kvitnu label, only now doing it from Austria instead of home country I believe. We’ve been digging these Kvitnu steel-belted thumpers for many years now, and even if not every one is a gem, there is a strong identity to the music in each case, and certainly ditto in the packaging which is usually done by Zavoloka. It’s like getting a pack of cigarettes from the future. His Cicada (KVITNU 55) was released in 2017 but might not be brand new music. Claims he, “lost and forgotten album, conserved…in digital archives”. Six punchy concise cuts whose typical mode is “throbbing pulsations” produced in digital manner, adorned with swishes of gestural white noise and angtsy glitch, and entire thing is highly suggestive of underground lair. Kotra evinces interest in testing our limits, trying to have a powerful effect on mind and body of audience. Many techno producers I gather have a similar faith in their own abilities to make a crowd of 2,000 bodies jump in the air. The “irritating and disturbing face of music” is a thing Kotra sees lurking at every corner, under every street sign, haunting him like a persistent demon. Rather than turning away, he’ll do all he can to confront that face and fling challenge back in its teeth.
http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2018/06/11/structures-systems-and-spheres/