Die slowakischen Mappa Editions bringen kurz vor den Feiertagen das vierte Album des deutsch-finnischen Duos Grykë Pyje heraus – das Projekt wurde vor rund zehn Jahren von den Klangkünstlern Jani Hirvonen und Johannes Schebler gegründet, die von ihren Stammprojekten Uton und Baldruin und weiteren Kollaborationen her bekannt sind. In sechzehn Abschnitten entwirft “Squillich Stroll” ein vielgestaltiges Soundnarrativ, das einen ganz eigenen Ort zwischen ambienter Dröhnung, surrealer Weltmusik und hörspielartigen Ansätzen beanspruchen kann. 
Als Dokument einer fantastischen Reise durch eine urzeitlich anmutende Welt voller bizarrer Chimären zeichnet “Squillich Stroll” ein Setting, dessen Schönheit immer wieder Raum für Dramatisches und Verstörendes lässt. Das Album erscheint digital und als LP auf ‘transviolettem’ Vinyl. Zudem veröffentlichen Mappa in Zusammenarbeit mit dem chilenischen Tape-Label Nonlocal Research das Doppel-Tape “The Fantastic World of Grykë Pyje”, das mit “Squillich Stroll” und “Collision and Coalescence” beide auf Mappa erschienenen Alben des Duos enthält. Beide Releases enthalten Artwork von Mevlana Lipp.
“On uncharted areas of medieval maps where potential dangers were thought to exist, the inscription “Here be dragons” was used to warn as much as to tempt explorers willing to cross limits. Myth awaited them as a blank page of dormant territory, yet also to be proved unlike and reinvented. In such pliable borders, wonder had the favorable conditions to blend experience and imagination, crafting creatures with an eye instead of a bellybutton, arms instead of ears and ears instead of fingers, hypnotizing spirals where a mouth should have been. These chimeras, though fictitious, allowed explorers to express their delusions along with their fears. “Here be dreams”, we hear nightmares. Here be mushrooms the size of pyramids that sing lullabies for mountains. Here be talking roads that lead to volcanoes throats and spit you back to flight. Here be art of bending trees into braided bridges like in Meghalaya, and the time gap between seed and living ruins.
Let that be the compass, the astrolabe. Yet, the music in Squirlich Stroll comes with these journeys already embraced, unraveling as a story told by wanderers visiting town, nourishing fantasy. The sonic language and diction employed here are crystal clear. Sounds are sharp and pure. Growls, howls, shrieks, tingles, rattles, moans, excretions and even hymns sung by landscape and creatures alike do not run over each other. There is no chaos, but ambience, cohabitation. The duo masters dramaturgy, providing every voice with focused turns and character, guarding their parley with caution and care, convoking them mainly through soothing synth melodies that enable an analgesic, sedative mood. Clusters of sounds gathered are articulated through the album with the inherent luminosity and required stability to accomplish what peaks in, as the title of the final track reads, a new dawn. ” (Mappa)