The case is all the more interesting, given that Zamilska’s electronic music can be classified as avant-garde or underground. It is not easily associated with fashion shows and camera flashes – on the contrary, it suits dark clubs, basements, anonymity. It is rough, dirty, and draws from noise, industrial and ethnic music, and at the same time includes perfectly cut and matched samples. The music is dominated by a tough, monotonous techno rhythm and vibrating basslines. This is at least what could be said about her debut album, containing both her breakthrough single Quarrel, and Duel 35, which closed the year. In the album Untune released in May 2014 there are more songs with militant titles such as Enemy, Army, Effort. The artist explained this in an interview with Popupmusic.pl:
I have gone through a huge revolution and numerous tough changes. This made me even more rebellious and encouraged me to stand up for myself. I strongly disagreed with the surrounding stereotypes, oppression, intolerance, and violence. In this album, war and duels have a very ambiguous meaning. Personal war, war in the world.
Zamilska has often mentioned her desire to take a stand for herself. She has talked about her dealings with club technicians – as a woman she is sometimes treated disrespectfully, even when rehearsing before her own concerts. She demands respect from concert and festival organisers, and has complained that clubs do not invest in good equipment – in the case of problems with sound, artists face all the consequences.
One can write long about Zamilska’s interviews, as her first single, the above-mentioned Quarrel, caused a stir of admiration among listeners and media circles not only in Poland, but also abroad. These reactions encouraged mainstream Polish media to listen to Zamilska. In addition, thanks to her interesting reflections on music, the artist appeared in the role of reviewer in April 2015: she was indeed the most intriguing among the musicians commenting on Kendrick Lamar’s celebrated album To Pimp a Butterfly in the international journal Electronic Beats.
Natalia Zamilska was born in 1989 in Zawiercie. She chose to dedicate herself to electronic music at the age of 15. She did not take any classes, and she learnt to play bass guitar and drums without anyone’s help. She is a graduate of the University of Silesia, a cultural animator, organising, for example, music production workshops at the Centre for Audiovisual Culture Grey Zone in Cieszyn.
Zamilska moved to Katowice to record her album, Untune, which appeared in the Silesian Mik Musik. The Quietus ranked it 12th among the best albums of 2014. Shortly after its release the artist left Silesia and settled in Warsaw. Her affairs are now managed by an international agency. Her second album, Undone (2016), was nominated for Fryderyk Award in electronic music category. She creates her video clips on her own, using open-license materials published on Vimeo. The artist stresses that she is not a DJ, but a composer and a producer. She runs her own label – Untuned Records.
Her third album, Uncovered, was released in May 2019. This time, Zamilska complemented her work with vocals of Karolina Rec and Justyna Wasilewska. Her work is being noticed and appreciated by the greatest celebrities: Zamilska’s songs were played on BBC radio by Iggy Pop, Nine Inch Nails placed her FuckFray among their musical recommendations on Spotify, and other compositions were broadcast in radio programmes by DJ Mary Anne Hobbs and presenter Tom Ravenscroft.
Zamilska has participated in the large Polish Open’er festival, as well as in New Music in Katowice and Unsound in Kraków, which are most suitable for her music. She has performed at the CTM in Berlin, and in May 2015 she made her debut at the Primavera Sound in Barcelona, the most important non-British festival in Europe. She has also participated in 2017’s Męskie Granie Orchestra, supervised by Tomasz Organek. Since 2017, she has been running her own programme Nocny TransPort (Night TransPort, trans. MG) on Polish Radio Four.
Zamilska’s music is also present outside of clubs or festival stages. Her works have been used in a short film by Aleksandra Terpińska The Best Fireworks Ever awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, the ABC series How to Get Away with Murder (a remix of Gazelle Twin’s song), and Tourists, a documentary film by Mateusz Romaszkan and Marta Wójtowicz-Wcisło. Zamilska’s aggressive compositions feature on the soundtrack for the dark, cyberpunk computer game Ruiner produced by Warsaw-based studio Reikon Games. The soundtrack received a 2018 Digital Dragons Award.
The artist’s relations with the fashion industry are also worth mentioning. Dior’s fashion show in 2014, which played such an important role in the development of her career, was not the only event in which Zamilska’s music has been used. In 2015, designer Michał Szulc invited her to collaborate on his own show.
Zamilska has cooperated with such artists as Katarzyna Nosowska, Maria Peszek, and rapper Quebonafide. She has also remixed songs by The Dumplings and Natalia Fiedorczuk. In 2017, Zamilska debuted as a record producer, collaborating with Paulina Przybysz on her Dzielne Kobiety (Brave Women, trans. MG), which then became a part of Fryderyk award-winning album Chodź Tu (Come Here, trans. MG).
Discography:
- 2014 – Untune
- 2016 – Undone
- 2019 – Uncovered
facebook.com/zamilska
soundcloud.com/zamilska
Originally written in Polish by Jacek Świąder, translated by Bozhana Nikolova, May 2015; updated by MG, July 2019.