The first few months of the year are usually not the most active of seasons in terms of album releases. Thus, in order to appease my inner music junkie, I’ve been digging into the record crates of dusty digital catacombs, such as Bandcamp, and here’s one of my most recent findings worth spreading some good words about – a Polish stoner-esque post-rock trio named GOZD. These atmospheric melancholics released their third album, “Trees Are Silent,” independently on February 19th, 2026, and these eight new tracks paint such a haunting sonic landscape that it needs to be explored in full. Compared to some of their earlier releases – 2023’s “This Is Not the End,” for instance – the execution is markedly tighter and, this time around, the music is mostly instrumental. The band’s evolution from a somewhat sloppy stoner-riff machine into a highly evocative post-rock act with stoner influences in just 3 years is pretty impressive. Yes, their previous album sounded a bit rough on the edges, more like a demo than a well-thought-out album, whereas this new endeavor sounds like a genuine musical journey into emotion. The stoner riffs are still there, but instead of sounding like never-ending, spliff-induced ramblings, the dynamic interplay between them and the atmospheric post-rock motifs works better in these new songs.
Perhaps it was the decision to drop the vocals that made these new songs sound less static – it’s one thing to “fill the empty spaces” with lyrics to tell a story and something quite different to have the same impact without vocals. That said, one of the highlights of the album is a song that features vocals – “Rusalka,” featuring guest vocalist Paulinia Przychodzien-Witek Damroca, a Polishsinger-songwriter also known from HEROES ORCHESTRA. The vocals traverse neck-deep in Slavic melancholy with a strong folk aura. It is not something you would come across very often on a post-rock album, and it certainly works in the band’s favor. The usual modus operandi would be something leaning more toward shoegaze or dream-pop, so this surprise jab of Slavic folk vibes is one of the aspects that makes GOZD stand out from the rest. They could have resorted to using it even more, if you asked me.
“Linden” is yet another track that doesn’t follow the most beaten post-rock paths, featuring trombone by Adam Kurek. The song is one of the strongest tracks in the selection for its balanced blend of stoner flourishes and atmospheric post-rock sections, upon which Kurek‘s trombone wails hit the proverbial nail right on the head. Of course, being such a sucker for the sound of brass instruments in whatever context, he could have adorned the song with even more trombone, but that’s just my humble jazz-police opinion. Post-rock is best-served live, almost by definition, but this is a song that really begs to be played live, especially if the band could recruit Kurek for their live lineup – of course, they’d need to write more parts for him to keep his trombone employed to the full, but as I said, I see no harm whatsoever in such conduct…
Okay, some of the tracks rely more on the stoner-jam philosophy than others – the opener, “Abiogenesis,” for example. The mixing, let alone the more spacious arrangements throughout the album, makes these new tracks sound less muddy and dense in comparison with the previous album, though. The guitars, the distorted parts in particular, sound much better on this new effort. So, I would say Mustache Ministry (is that a guy or a company?), who was responsible for the mixing and mastering of the album, did a marvellous job! The drums could have used a little more punch, but I reckon that might have been an aesthetic choice; with harder-hitting drums, music like this could tip over to the post-metal side of things very easily, and even at their heaviest, GOZD steers clear of the metal sound. The harshest moments resonate more with the air of riff-driven post-rock acts, such as PELICAN or RUSSIAN CIRCLES. To cut a long story short, I’m glad I accidentally bumped into this Polish act – they sure made a delicate, yet indelible mark on the post-rock scene with their new album, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard something even more impressive from them in the future. “Trees Are Silent” definitely seems like a good omen.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Abiogenesis
- The Oath Taken Beneath the Oak Tree
- Birch
- OM
- Linden
- Rusalka (feat. Damroca)
- Axis Mundi
- Ekoton
Lineup
Jakub Gozdek – guitars
Kacper Sierpowski – bass
Marek Gozdek – drums
Guests:
Adam Kurek – trombone on “Linden”
Paulinia Przychodzien-Witek Damroca – vocals on “Rusalka”
Label
Independent
Links
https://gozd.bandcamp.com/album/trees-are-silent
