Gnoomes Rework Krautrock on Losey, Their First Album Since Leaving Russia

Gnoomes have relocated from Perm, Russia, to rural Slovenia, and their sixth release for Rocket Recordings, Losey, reflects that displacement. The album moves away from the psych and krautrock shapes that defined earlier work — the kind associated with Neu!, Can, and Kraftwerk — toward a harsher electronic palette of apocalyptic synths, dark drum patterns, and distorted vocals. Tracks like “Repeat Repent” and “Satan’s Ball” replace the group’s usual mechanistic rhythms with an atmosphere of static and tension.

Founders Sasha and Masha Piankov frame the move not as escape but as what Sasha calls a “nervous system decision.” The isolation of the countryside, he says, reduced a background anxiety the pair had carried for most of their lives. That context shapes Losey‘s themes: identity, nationalism, and the question of where one belongs. Lead singles “Foreign Agent” and “Losey” start with simple synth waves and driving beats before collapsing into dense, crackling noise.

The record does not announce a complete break. Gnoomes’ gradual shift toward electronic elements was already audible on their previous LPs Ax Ox and Mu!. But Losey commits more fully to that direction — a music made by two people living with the strange condition of being immigrants, still bound by the glow that music provides.