Based in Gniezno, a city in central-western Poland, singer, poet and performer Alex Freiheit and bassist Piotr ‘Buri’ Buratyński have been active as confrontational feminist duo Siksa since 2014. Beginning with simpler bass-driven songs, the pair have gradually also incorporated aspects of theatre and film into their work and performances too. In their interview with Miloš Hroch in The Wire 452, Freiheit and Buratyński discuss their activism, their current fairytale influenced project The Uses Of Enchantment, a collaboration with composer and programmer Marcin Pietruszewski, and more.

Here, Siksa share exclusive selected tracks from a soundtrack to a theatre production they made and performed over spring and summer 2021, titled O Czynach Niszczących Opowieść (About The Deeds That Destroy The Story). The play takes place in a paddock as two cowgirls face each other in a final showdown. “They fight for the story rather than with each other... It's a Beckett like play in convention of western with influences of spaghetti western”, say Siksa over email. “We made the music together as Siksa with our friend Konstanty Usenko,” crediting the cellist and writer who also produced several of Siksa's albums (Punk Ist Tot and Patriotyzm Jutra among others).

“In the soundtrack to About The Deeds That Destroy The Story we refer to classical western like sounds as Morricone, Nino Rota, surf music with distorted guitars but also to Japanese soundtracks from Kurosawa films and simple black metal melodies. It's packed of simple references but we see western movies soundtracks as so inspiring and complete that we need just our touch to make it fun. Of course, in our lo-fi, punk, kicked aesthetic it's little bit more ’unideal‘ and we're proud of it!”

Read more from Siksa in The Wire 452. Subscribers can also read the article online via our digital archive.