Foxy Digitalis
Siavash Amini envelops listeners in harmonic shades through expansive tonal corridors exploring and engaging with different tuning systems (particularly Safi-al-din Urmav’s 17-tone scale). The Iranian composer, a self-described tuning obsessive, creates compelling sonic spaces on “Instantia” where harmonics resonate and intersect almost suffocatingly. Parched resonances spread through languid, emotive drones, toying with dissonance and harmony, […]
Waves lap the shores, hidden within a shimmering resonance. Light filters through the wistful drones, spreading ethereal glimmers across a quiet city in the early morning hours. “Brilla Deserto” sings without words, part of Renato Fiorito’s poignant and beautiful tribute to Naples, Lustra. Melodies intermingle with the cool breeze, stretched from the darkest nights into the […]
Narrative vignettes are tied together in the inward-flowing expanses of Brian McBride’s “Far From Home” rework. Glassine drones turn to vapor, swelling beyond borders and into the night. A sense of dread lurks within resonant hollows, twisted into pensive melodies that disappear in the seconds before taking hold. McBride continues to turn the screws, building […]
Reality is a shifting plane through the emotive crystalscapes of Belgian duo ZONDERWERK’s “DreamArp4Kort4.” Their upcoming debut album, babel, was initially conceived as a soundtrack for a stage play. Filled with movement and wonder colored with a harsh, delicate edge, find “DreamArp4Kort4” scaling aural imagery into the distance while the emotive melodies pull us inward. This […]
Among the gentle acoustic guitar plucks and lilting vocal melodies, “New Skin” reflects on change and stagnation. Scott Matthews’s voice pierces through the soft sonic clouds to scatter light into unknown corners, to illuminate the unfamiliar pathways so that the uncharted distance isn’t so daunting. “Before I’m fully aware of it, a change has taken […]
Beyond the veil of our perceptions lies a world of infinite possibility. London and Taipei-based artist a wave, a mouth; crafts a captivating narrative on their upcoming album, King Lee. The shimmering sonic passages that open “She Wears the Crown” bridges the distance between that reality and our imaginations, flickering in magical patterns. Languid piano arrangements […]
To call Sacratávica special does a disservice to just how vital this first-ever collection of Guatemalan composer and interdisciplinary artist Joaquin Orellana’s work is. As the central figure in the Guatemalan avant garde, his work spans decades and mediums. On the collection’s title track, Orellana’s ambition comes to life. Cloud-like choral arrangements encircle resonant percussive elements from […]
A beguiling combination of blown-out, stochastic rhythms and traditional folk-infused strings pulls back a mythical curtain on “Guidance.” Ruah (aka Benjamin Schurr) takes the opening and drives it into the outer sonic reaches, with globular basslines hypnotizing us while he paints affecting, soaring melodies with his voice. The production and songwriting have an epic quality, […]
Harsh frequencies meddle with an otherwise stoic atmosphere, putting a disorienting sheen into the air. Crackling oscillations turn the page just as “Spiral VI” feels like too much. Pé’s Spiral: A Continuation picks up the still-dangling threads from his last Dragon’s Eye release, Spiral. Everything here – each tone, each arrangement – is stripped to […]