Torul

Based on almost two decades of solo endeavours, Torul emerged as an industrial synthpop band somewhere around 2010, when its first album was released. The man behind it is Borut Bernik, otherwise one of the pioneering Slovenian techno producers, who soon after established Torul as a trio with Jan Jenko on vocals and Borut Dolenec on guitars and synths. Bernik himself takes care of programming, synths, effects, occasional vocals and the band in general. When performing solo, he goes under the name Torulsson.

Their meticulously crafted melange of a slightly "gothic" atmosphere with various techno derivatives, rock energy, indie quirkiness and a strong melodic anchor soon garnered them a strong international following, enthusiastic reviews in the media and regular gigs all over Europe.

Torul — All (Official Video) by TORUL Videokanal on YouTube

The group also puts great emphasis on the visual component and, besides insisting on well thought out stage lighting, they also put much effort into the production of their videos which they themselves conceive, direct and produce.

Background

Borut Bernik, who has actually been using the name Torul for almost two decades, started his music career at the start of the nineties. Besides sporadically playing keyboards for the darkwave band Coptic Rain (and the lesser-known Silent Order), his primary act was a collaboration with Aleš Čačovič, with whom they worked under the names Clox, Channel Klirr, Cloak Device and The Clockworx and released a number of techno vinyls for the Ljubljana-based Matrix Music and some other labels.

In later years, Borut started to release music under the alias Torul and at the break of the century appeared on labels such as Force Inc, Low Spirit, Thule, Tissje, Touch Tone, High-Head and so on. He also started playing live-acts (having played in many respected European clubs including Tresor), and as his musical interests reached beyond techno, his sound became more and more personal, gradually leading him into the territory he is now exploring with the trio.

At the start of 2010, when the first Torul LP was released, this trio did not yet exist. Borut Dolenec contributed his bass guitar for only a few songs, and the vocals were handled by Mitja Šedlbauer and Bernik. But as live performances demanded a more solid line-up, the current trio came together soon after.

Discography and performances

Following the release of Dark Matters, the band signed with the German independent label Infacted Recordings and released there a number of successful albums such as In Whole (2011), Tonight We Dream Fiercely (2013, simultaneously released in the USA at Metropolis Records) and The Measure (2015). Singles from these records have gotten to the very top of many alternative charts such as DAC, GEWC, DAT20, EAC and others. The albums have gotten very positive reviews on various online magazines and earned them the title "Newcomer of the Year" on the high profile portal depechemode.de.

The band started playing abroad very fast and first appeared in Germany already in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, they went on a tour with Mesh, a legendary English synthpop band from Bristol, and toured all over Europe. This, taken together with well-received albums, has enabled them to subsequently play extensively in Germany and Central Europe, even getting them as far as Moscow. They appeared at Wave Gothic Treffen, E-Tropolis Festival, Sci-Fi festival, Amfi festival, E-Werk Festival. In Slovenia, they were invited to Flow Festival Ljubljana, Lent Festival and played at a number of venues like Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Orto Bar, Gala Hala, Klub Menza pri koritu, F-Club, ...

With the name Torul taken by the band, Borut Bernik chose the name DJ Torulsson for his DJ gigs, offering – as he says – "special club mash-up sets. Dynamic unconventional DJ sets, where various music styles, such as electro, synthpop, darkpop, techno, electroclash and postpunk sounds seamlessly integrate".

External links

Torul

Contents

Background

Discography and performances

See also

External links

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