The Viennese formation CULK present their second album "Zerstreuen über Euch". It is a declaration of war against deeply-rooted patriarchal structures. Last year, the group around singer & multi-instrumentalist Sophie Löw has created an "addictive sound" (spiegel.de) between Shoegaze and Post-punk with their self-titled debut album which has caused a sensation along the way. For their new material, CULK have collaborated with the Viennese producer Wolfgang Möstl (Mile me Deaf, Nino aus Wien, Voodoo Jürgens, Dives_) and have been pursuing the path of their career consistently.
First and foremost, Sophie Löw's lyrics, brought to life by her bewitching vocals, tackle highly relevant topics and negotiate them in a poetic way: The obstinate attitude of making gender diversity invisible among the linguistic and social reality ("Dichterin"). All the different strategies that women have gathered over a span of years, in order to comfort themselves with a hint of safety during night time, simply to arrive at home as unscathed as possible ("Nacht"). Pressured into serving a subordinate role in bed, in everyday life, within family, job and the general public ("Helle Kammer"). The lasting damage which is caused by these experiences ("Jahre später") and the countless number of meaningless justifications that follow criticism against gender ratio, time and time again.
The Viennese band CULK covers all these issues in their second album "Zerstreuen über Euch". These are heavy topics, circling around power, love and resistance; their urgency is immediately palpable, textually and musically. Sophie Löw (voice, lyrics, guitar, synthesizer, artwork), Johannes Blindhofer (guitar), Benjamin Steiger (bass, guitar) and Christoph Kuhn (drums) have infused their political and personal war into their very own art which coincides with the musical form of Post-punk, captivating voice, and poetic lyrics. The lyrics written by Sophie Löw avoid neo-liberal "female empowerment"; they don't convey a message of perfect women who can achieve everything they want. It is much more about providing a space, inside and outside of the German-speaking pop-music scene, where collective experiences by women oppressed by the patriarchy, relegated to a secondary position and reduced to silence, are artistically processed and collectively negotiated.
Despite the recurring use of the first-person view, the stories point out collective trauma of each spectrum: obvious or long unnoticed, instead of discussing individual experiences. They describe shared experiences in a painful and intimate but never voyeuristic way. They seem to say, "All of this is here, all of this we live to see, what are we going to do with it?" They are a denunciation of ratio without pointing fingers, a subtle, yet intense wrestling with them. The lyrics are clearly defined: there is no need for metaphors or white washing, yet they are dense and playful; not necessarily the wording itself but always in order, repetition, and emphasis. Sophie Löw "is not a poet, yet she writes poetry" ("Dichterin").
In the course of the self-titled debut album, which was published in 2017, perpetual questions about the meaning behind the name CULK and what it stands for reached the band. "For nothing" was their usual answer, because CULK is a concept of art which can be filled with any meaning at all; not that the first album hasn't already ensured that. Through "Zerstreuen über Euch" CULK have discovered a way to convert their political declaration into an engaging interaction with lyrics, music, and aesthetics; concocting an album which moves and agitates, raises questions for some and gives answers to others. You feel taken seriously, sheltered, but also challenged by CULK. Maybe that's the meaning which can be ascribed to the name of the band while it still leaves space for more.
