Eavesdropping on a lost conversation or sifting through ancient postcards, remnants or rather fragments of a life worth living beside other human beings. Adam Badí Donoval’s debut ‘Sometimes Life Is Hard And So We Should Help Each Other’ has an uncanny ability to evoke warmth and memory, open dialogues that recreate a timeless thread characterized by unearthly compositions that combine field recordings, electronic loops and perpetual melodies.

Based in Bratislava, Adam Badí Donoval, originally released the album on cassette format on The Trilogy Tapes (2022). Now remastered for vinyl and with additional artwork it fully presents the composer’s emotionally resonant sound sculptures calling upon a vast collection of samples and recorded snippets coming from an incredible cast of collaborators: Kepla (Chinese horn and cello), John Sampson and Ondrej Zajac (field recordings), Adela Mede and Martyna Basta (voice), Tomáš Niesner (guitar) and Andreas Dzialocha (bass). Masterfully arranged by Donoval, shreds of sound transform into pure melancholy to construct a peculiarly ethereal oeuvre that feels grounded, real and familiar.

“The whole thing started with the album title, which derives from calligraphy made by my little sister. It was such a pure expression of a realization that life might not always be easy & that it can only really be made easier by working alongside others, that it sparked within me a desire to reflect on that sentiment musically.” Echoes of the past drawing an ancestral line in the dust (Grandma’s Tape), sublimely tactile crackle and manipulated acoustic guitar (Birdsong In The Park), submerged minimalism with Philip Jeck’s worn-out groove quality (Time Passes Slowly When You’re In A Submarine), dark ambient layering elegiac vocals reproducing distant alien convos (When It All Falls Into Place).

“Instruments never fight for space, they appear from the musical ether like detritus from another universe, echoing over crumbled tape hiss and carefully selected environmental elements.” - Boomkat

Nothing feels out of place on ‘Sometimes Life Is Hard And So We Should Help Each Other’, it’s diaristic quality is just a shadow casting a wider narrative, hymns for the wide-eyed believers, spiritual ambient chamber music that firmly places Adam Badí Donoval alongside a diverse community of experimental seekers like Claire Rousay, Liz Harris, David Toop and The Caretaker, authors that deconstruct while moving forward, reassembling and striving to recreate connective tissue.