Brooklyn's elusive Tom returns with the first release on Sweet Breeze Sound, a new label launched by Washington, DC's Marc Meistro of Sol Power All-Stars, aka Glenn Echo. He has already turned heads with a fine set of 12"s on Razor-N-Tape and Sol Power Sound, and here brings some dubby disco grooves and infectious samples. Side A leans into loved-up feels, looping an irresistible 80s r&b vocal over bouncing bass and layers of percussion. The B-side shifts to a more melancholic mood and is run through with a feeling of longing through a single repeated phrase supported by deep dub bass and driving disco rhythm. This is a great inaugural release from a label sure to become essential.
Cerca:re lay
Black[11,72 €]
Following his remix of Youthman by Echo Inspectors & Subset, Biodub returns to Primary Colours with his first original release for the label, the Dialogue EP.
The title track, Dialogue, shows Biodub’s familiar warmth and attention to detail, built around deep basslines, subtle textures, with a calm and reflective flow. It’s understated yet full of presence, a fine example of Biodub’s ability to communicate emotion through minimal elements.
Pablo Bolivar steps in for the Dream Dub Remake, offering a refined reinterpretation that expands the original into wider, dreamlike space. His version brings a smooth, rolling energy with gentle synth layers, flowing delays, and a steady, hypnotic rhythm that carries both warmth and clarity. It’s a standout moment on the release, highlighting the shared sensibility between both artists.
Grassland continues with a natural, organic movement, a balance of deep groove and open atmosphere, while Ubiport closes the record in a more introspective tone, marked by subtle echoes and restrained rhythm.Dialogue is a cohesive and thoughtful release that reflects the core sound of Primary Colours: immersive, detailed, and rooted in the deep dub tradition.
Green Marbled[11,72 €]
Following his remix of Youthman by Echo Inspectors & Subset, Biodub returns to Primary Colours with his first original release for the label, the Dialogue EP.
The title track, Dialogue, shows Biodub’s familiar warmth and attention to detail, built around deep basslines, subtle textures, with a calm and reflective flow. It’s understated yet full of presence, a fine example of Biodub’s ability to communicate emotion through minimal elements.
Pablo Bolivar steps in for the Dream Dub Remake, offering a refined reinterpretation that expands the original into wider, dreamlike space. His version brings a smooth, rolling energy with gentle synth layers, flowing delays, and a steady, hypnotic rhythm that carries both warmth and clarity. It’s a standout moment on the release, highlighting the shared sensibility between both artists.
Grassland continues with a natural, organic movement, a balance of deep groove and open atmosphere, while Ubiport closes the record in a more introspective tone, marked by subtle echoes and restrained rhythm.Dialogue is a cohesive and thoughtful release that reflects the core sound of Primary Colours: immersive, detailed, and rooted in the deep dub tradition.
For AI-41 Astral Industries presents a vinyl reissue of Robert Henke’s multifaceted concept album ‘Layering Buddha’. An erudite masterclass on sampling and composition, ‘Layering Buddha’ encapsulates the material process of metamorphosis and a well of nascent, ever-present potentialities. This new edition comes remastered by Henke himself.
Originally released in 2006, ‘Layering Buddha’ began with a curious encounter with the ‘Buddha Machine’ - a pocket-sized, battery powered playback device that, over the past two decades, has quietly achieved a cult status around the world. Conceived by the Beijing-based group FM3 (Christiaan Virant, Zhang Jian), the machine takes inspiration from Tibetan Buddhist prayer boxes and consists of nine sound loop compositions of varying length, which can be toggled with a single switch. Due to low production cost and manufacturing imperfections, each Buddha Machine is unique, giving slight variations in sound, pitch and duration.
Using a state of the art A/D converter Henke made high quality recordings from a single machine, providing the source material for the album. Through various processing and arrangement methods, new pieces emerged, most of them all deriving from a single source loop. The pieces were then set up on the computer as generative arrangements, living as continuously permutating structures that could theoretically go on forever - just as the loops do within the Buddha Machines…
The final pieces featured on the album are rendered excerpts of these infinite permutations, and therefore exist as momentary views on a perpetual machinery, as opposed to closed works. Upon initial exploration, it also became a natural development to format the work into an immersive multi-speaker performance - which premiered on January 31, 2007.
Within the music, subtle artefacts and idiosyncrasies are transmuted into new realms of texture and timbre. Through the extractive hand of subtle augmentations, an array of ethereal dimensions emerge from the vast unseen ocean. Suspended in a sense of timelessness, their undulating rhythms point to a pool of endless mysteries.
Alpenglühen starts 2026 with two close friends working together in the 11th one
Atàvic is the collaborative project between Estrato Aurora and Absis, merging two distinct yet complementary approaches to electronic music. The project is rooted in texture, atmosphere, and subtle narrative, allowing sound to evolve organically and without excess.
They together bring a refined sense of space and detail, working with ambient layers, restrained rhythms, and melodic fragments that unfold slowly. Here is a 4 track release with a more tactile and material approach, focusing on timbre, resonance, and sonic density, blurring the line between abstraction and structure.
The alignment between Atàvic and the label lies in a shared appreciation for subtlety, patience, and sonic storytelling, where each release is conceived as a complete and meaningful statement.
With this reference, Atàvic contributes a work that resonates with alpenglühen’s aesthetic ethos while reinforcing the collaborative project’s own identity: music that invites close listening and reveals its nuances slowly.
If you’re looking for a peak-time, dancefloor-driven banger to keep you moving until sunrise, this is not that record.
But if you’re after a mind-blowing experience that challenges and expands your listening (and dancings), this one’s for you. Don’t overthink it.
Multidisciplinary Brussels-based artist Sagat steps up with a new mini album on the Basic Moves side label, Gems Under The Horizon, featuring a remix by Slovenian ambient bird e/tape. A few years ago, Wiet Lengeler, aka Sagat was invited by Basic Moves to create a live visual show using an analogue video synth setup to accompany a 5-hour dj set by e/tape at Face B in Brussels. From that moment on, the synchronicity between the two artists was clear - and this EP is the result.
Besides his visual work, Wiet Lengeler is also known for his contemporary techno music, primarily released on Brussels’ cult label Vlek Recordings. For this mini-album, Gems Under The Horizon 003, he presents four grainy ambient and textured electro-acoustic explorations. The tracks unfold organically — like ivy — gradually revealing layers of sound and hidden textures beneath babbling streams of electronics. e/tape’s remix feels like a natural continuation of Sagat’s sonic universe, together forming a mesmerising whole that explores the fringes of ambient music. In addition to the release, a limited run of the release + 30 x 3 riso printed posters from the visual show at Face B, made by Sagat and hand numbered are made available.
Mastering and lacquer cut was done by Frederic Alstadt at Angstrom Mastering. Artwork & inserts are designed by renowned Ghent-based visual artist Dieter Durinck.
Sit back and enjoy the wonderful aural world of Sagat and e/tape.
Sincerely,
The Basic Moves team.
“There's a clarity here that feels hard-won. Honing ideas first explored with his Organic Music series, Tiago Sousa unlocks the final puzzle pieces on Sustained Tones Vol 1. This music is enchanted, the way each layer moves in conjunction with the others: complex structures that feel less constructed than discovered, like stumbling upon ancient mechanisms still whirring beneath the earth. "Readily Reliance" opens as an effervescent sea, waves gilded in neon creating an enveloping sense of eternal motion. Bright organ timbres throw silhouettes and cast Sousa as the deft puppeteer keeping everything moving with an effortless precision. These evolving shapes suspend listeners somewhere between the physical and the cosmic, held in place by nothing but intention and sound.
Drones build rippling foundations in other places, using slower tempos to construct immersive, off-kilter sound worlds where minimalism becomes emotive, almost poignant. The fluctuating tones have a gossamer sheen, creating this interesting sonic dichotomy: a solid surface with fragile rotations beneath. It's music that commands attention; it is so much more than simply aural furniture. Sousa writes these beautiful sequences that are all interconnected, intricate sonic architecture that pulls us further into some kind of unknowable ether.
On the piano pieces, "Smooth Flow Into It" and "Swirling Mist and Thin Dust," Sousa shines sunlight through all the cracks. Washes of melody are effervescent, clouds clearing to reveal the day has not gone. Not yet. Positioned in the middle of Sustained Tones Vol 1, these pieces ground the album in something transcendent yet still earthen: moments of breath inside all that cosmic drift. Darkness finds its way through on "Restlessness," where Sousa smears sinuous electronics into a ghostly sonic mesh that seeps through the skin. It feels like a slow inhale, time suspended long enough to take note of where we are and how we feel before moving forward. Expressive, almost sparkling synth arrangements return to send us back into reality on closer "Becoming a Landscape." Its title hints at larger concepts at play throughout this album, where lines between our physical beings and the wider environment are blurred. The tones that echo throughout these six pieces mirror the echoes inside our bodies, from heartbeats and voices to something quieter, something much smaller and more elemental. By immersing us inside these mesmerising, beautiful soundscapes, Sousa immerses us within ourselves.’’
Brad Rose, 2025
A great mixture of jazz, funk, afrobeat and house on new album by Italian outfit Asakaira for Quattro Bambole. "Asakaira is the name of a place that does not exist, an "invisible city" that is the backdrop to the meeting of four musicians. Michele Vassallo (sax and efx), Giuseppe Desiderio (bass), Francesco Fasanaro (percussion) and Giuseppe Limpido (drums) who together have already gone through various experiences to immerse themselves in an imaginary space, of the border! So, they exploit this nature to transcend the limit, throwing caution to the wind with carefree abandon, but not before carefully noting the history and legacy of jazz, hip-hop and afrobeat. Asakaira' s sound is psychedelic, fluid, constantly evolving: afrobeat & jazz punk alternate with funk, electronic music of Mediterranean culture. An absolutely "stateless" sound, while maintaining its own timbre and stylistic coherence to make it recognizable. The choice of not having a harmonic instrument present in the lineup gives ample space to electronic effects and the groove, creating a sort of modern ritual. The eponymous debut album, released by Quattro Bambole Records, consists of seven tracks, in which the ability to reinterpret their native sounds with polysemic rhythms emerges in a work where layered drums and percussions intertwine with effected saxophones and psychedelic bass lines. A path that moves between songs with a more "ethereal" ancestry, such as the opening track "Night Tales", an acoustic groove that rests on the use of the handpan, an idiophone instrument that gives the song a psychedelic vibration and like "Chatting With You" where a soft and extended overlapping of multiple musical meters emerges, between neo soul, jazz and hip-hop."
Groggy, engrossing new work from Ulla under their newly minted U.e. tag, riffing to the sublime on a set of (mostly) acoustic reveries that tap into the kind of smokey vapours favoured by the likes of Vincent Gallo, Voice Actor, Jonnine.
A new year, label, album and handle for Ulla, a multifaceted artist who has draped our pages with wonder, under numerous aliases and collabs, for almost a decade. On ‘Hometown Girl’ they distill transience and flux into a quiet set of chamber works subtly resembling the room recorded nuance of their ‘Jazz Plates’ side with Perila - here taken a step further into more elusive, low-lit dimensions.
In a mode that’s wistful and melancholic, listening to the album’s dozen discrete pieces feels like leafing thru a journal of hand-written notes, reflecting on the feelings that come with separation from loved ones and displacement from familiarity. Ulla performed and recorded all of the instruments themselves, lending a tangible tactility to layered arrangements of woodwind, keys, strings, drums and voice, lightly speckled with electronics and perfused with open window field recordings.
They locate a crackling frisson of personality in the voice notes and day-dreaminess of their mottled inscapes, gauzily demarcating lines between past and present selves. In that aesthetic and approach we can also hear similarities to Jonnine’s blue-skied ‘Southside Girl’ or crys cole’s poetic sensuality, often leaning into the domestic surreal.
A frayed, opening salutation ‘Good Morning’ signals a delirious half hour in Ulla’s company, variously swaying to the downstroked jazz swing of a ‘Lavender (NF)’ spritzed with clarinet, whilst ‘Froggy Explorer’ stirs the air like Jan Jelinek on a barely-there tip. The Basinski-esque fritz of degraded loops really snags the imagination along with a twinkling nightlight ‘Ball’, as the album opens out into its most fully resolved songs with a closing couplet of disarming wonders ‘Drawing of Me’, and a blurry ‘Mute’ that feels like Ulla 〜almost〜 reveals too much before retreating back into the shadows.
The music of the duo Parajekt is created on electronic instruments. Drum machines, samplers, modular synths, and effects devices all culminate in a tape recorder, whose limitations invite them to work with great musical and sonic precision.
The resulting pieces serve as the first layer and as a sound score, which is then overwritten, mixed, and refined with dub techniques in a subsequent step.
Elements inspired by electronic beat music, musique concrete, and noise merge in a musical performance that brings the studio action onto the stage and places it front and center.
SF's Fog Lamp have been at it for a few yrs now, repping heavily around the local environs, garnering a solid word-of-mouth reputation. Originally a trio sans tubs, the synth-driven iron gulp of their early days was like Animal of Anti-Nowhere League crashing a Cabaret Voltaire rehearsal. 'Power to the paradox' I like to say, or in the immortal words of Tug McGraw, "Ya Gotta Believe!" So after a couple tapes & whatnot, Siltbreeze got clued in & have solidly backed their debut vinyl lp, Still Entangled. Along the way, the band enlisted the solid drumming prowess of Rachelle Hughes & by doing so, Fog Lamp have zoned in an intensive, beguiling churn of Dossier era Chrome slipping into The Sleepers panic-creep of 'Sleepless Nights'. Their hauntingly dense & layered murk is as authentically Bay Area as a bowl of Cioppino. Look for them on tour (West Coast only) in Jan. of 2026. Flannel is the new Goth
- 1: Heartbreak Hostel
- 2: The Colonial Club
- 3: Cyanide Desire
- 4: God Etc
- 5: Sunny Weather
- 6: Alarm
- 7: Hang Me On The Wall
- 8: Loss
- 9: Asbestos Love
- 10: Goodbye
- 11: The Fish The Learned To Drown
- 12: Ursa Minor
Dan O'Farrell & The Difference Engine's fourth album (recorded and produced by Andy Lewis ) arrives at the start of 2026 like a cold, sharp bucket of water in the face. Bracing and troubling - like a tongue returning to a sore tooth - these songs probe life's dark waters: loss of family, faith, community & self- confidence - but also remains empathetic and rousing, ultimately cathartic. Once you've scraped the bottom, the only way is up. Creation is always an act of joyful defiance. Based in Southampton, and formed from the ashes of John Peel-endorsed indie-band Accrington Stanley , the band bring layers of warmth and subtlety to the uncompromisingly lyrical alt-folk songs of Dan O'Farrell, English-teacher by day and angry, leftist complainer by night.
- A1: Skyscraper
- A2: Subways Of Your Mind
- A3: Goldrush
- A4: Heart In Danger
- A5: Dirty Slapstick
- B1: I Got My Eyes On You
- B2: Talking Hands
- B3: Strange Feeling
- B4: Jenny
- B5: Subways Of Your Mind (Tmms Darius Version)
Yellow Vinyl[25,17 €]
The incredible story that began with The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet (TMMS) now enters an exciting new chapter: Skyscraper, the debut album by FEX.
Skyscraper features ten original tracks recorded in the early to mid-1980s-carefully re-transferred, remastered, and brought back to life. The album cover, designed by Darius S., brings the story full circle. Darius is the very person who preserved the now-iconic track Subways of Your Mind by recording it from NDR radio in the mid-80s. Without him, FEX may never have been discovered.
FEX's debut opens with its namesake, Skyscraper-a brooding, previously unreleased track the band once described as part of their "psychedelic phase." With haunting synth-helicopter textures and deep guitar riffs, it immediately sets the tone and raises tension.
The release flows naturally into the energetic and fully remastered studio version of Subways of Your Mind. This version of the TMMS - re-discovered on the "yellow label tape" by Reddit user Marijn-was long believed to be from a smaller home studio, but was actually recorded in November 1984 at Hawkeye Studios in Ganderkesee, near Hamburg.
Goldrush, first teased in raw form on FEX's YouTube channel, bends toward mechanical rhythm and shimmering synths, a snapshot of the band's experiments with programmed drum machine sound. Rückwardt's lyrics point to greed and criticizes materialism, and while the music leans toward pop sensibilities, it carries a raw, fractured edge.
Heart in Danger and I've Got My Eyes On You offer contrasting experiences-one rooted in classic post-punk tension, the other floating in melodic synth layers. The latter in particular feels like a fragment from a parallel radio history: a precise and one of a kind synth pop love song with a progressive touch.
From a rehearsal tape comes Dirty Slapstick, its urgency intact. Missing keyboard parts were later reconstructed by Michael Hädrich using his original DX7 synthesizer-recovering lost elements without rewriting the past. The lyrics take a wry look at forced optimism. Also included are the songs Talking Hands, Jenny and Strange Feeling, the latter being a slower blues-tinged cut, revealing yet another facet of the band's reach and Rückwardt's songwriting diversity.
The album closes where the legend began-with the original radio recording of Subways of Your Mind from Darius' cassette. This version of The Most Mysterious Song features alternate vocal effects, contributing to the track's enigmatic aura. Digitally transferred using a high-end Revox machine and carefully remastered, it now has its long-deserved official release.
The cover features a photo of the Eichenberg Bunker in Kiel-one of FEX's original rehearsal spaces and a symbolic monument to their sonic legacy.
2026 repress !
Blue Hour Music welcomes French artist Mathys Lenne for his debut EP as ‘The Scan’ - his go to alias for classic techno. Titled ‘Callgroove’ the record features four functional and highly seductive DJ tools aimed at darkly-lit dance floors. Each track is stripped to its essential layers, holding its own unique tension with hints of pre-pandemic club moments, lead by bold rhythmic groove manipulation, classic drum
programming and immersive atmospherics.
Repress.
Fast-rising Dutch DJ/producer BELLA becomes the first new artist signing to Sally C’s Big Saldo’s Chunkers imprint, with the inspiring ‘Note to Self’ EP – her debut production.
Relationships are key for Sally C. Since the inception of Big Saldo’s Chunkers in 2020, she’s released three carefully chosen EPs, all from her own studio. When she met BELLA while playing a festival in Amsterdam during summer 2022, the click was instantaneous, with the pair going on to play an impromptu b2b that day. Vibing both musically and energetically, they kept in touch, with BELLA sending Sally her maiden productions ‘Note To Self’ and ‘Orchestra Spring’. Sally connected so deeply with the tracks that they’d form the backbone of her debut artist EP on Big Saldo’s Chunkers.
One listen to the final EP and it’s not hard to see why Sally wanted to emboss them as Chunkers. Three fresh originals taking in influence from ‘90s house, acid, electro and prog, all with a unique hard-to-pin-down energy that makes them hit with a special swing.
The title track – also the first production made for the EP - sees BELLA lay down a sonic blueprint – both for her own sound and the full body of work. “This set the vibe and guided me through the creative process. I was really trying to make something that felt my own, that was also unique and not something I’ve heard before,” she shares. ‘Note to Self’ is heavy on attitude and bounce, driven by banging old skool drums, a rapid-fire grime-style vocal and a duo of synth lines – one uplifting, the other mining a slick ‘80s sheen, and the results are memorable. An absolute tune that Sally’s delighted to add to the Chunker catalogue.
‘Orchestra Spring’ is the perky sequel, a wicked one-two punch of kaleidoscopic groovy house with lashings of attitude that loves to scribble outside the lines with lots of retro samples and trippy energy. ‘Odd Symphony’ completes the trio, a blazing late-night cut driven by a gurgling acid underbelly, gritty drums and warm chords, giving the EP a brilliant afterglow.
Before he turned 20, Lô Borges released one of the most captivating albums to come out of Brazil's rich musical landscape - a record that somehow flew under the radar at the time but has since become a cult favorite for listeners around the world. Recorded in the same whirlwind year as the legendary "Clube da Esquina" - the groundbreaking collaboration with Milton Nascimento and Beto Guedes - this self-titled solo debut finds Lô Borges in full creative flight. Pressured by Odeon Records to deliver a solo project, Borges responded with a burst of youthful brilliance, sometimes writing a song in the morning and laying it down in the studio that very night. The result? An album that's spontaneous, heartfelt, and sonically stunning. From the shimmering guitars of 'Você Fica Melhor Assim' to the dreamy melodies of 'Cançao Postal' and the jazz-infused groove of 'Calibre,' the album blends Brazilian popular music with rock, soul, and subtle psychedelic touches. It's got the intimate spirit of a bedroom recording, but with the musical sophistication of legends - with collaborators like Toninho Horta, Tenorio Jr., Nelson Angelo, and of course, Beto Guedes helping bring Borges' vision to life. Fans of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, or early Nascimento will feel right at home here - but Lô Borges brings his own voice, at once tender and electrifying, to every track. The guitars are fuzzy, the harmonies rich, and the songwriting nothing short of magical. Though it didn't make a splash in 1972, "Lô Borges" has only grown in stature over the years. It's the kind of album you discover once, then return to again and again - a timeless treasure from a young artist who helped redefine Brazilian music from the ground up. If you're into warm, soulful songwriting with a touch of experimental edge, this record is waiting for you. Give it a listen - and see why "Lô Borges" is considered one of Brazil's most underrated masterpieces. Reissue on 180g vinyl.
Over the past year, No Drama, the label founded by Roy Rosenfeld, has established itself as a space for creative independence and artistic authenticity. Known for his refined fusion of house, techno, and downtempo, Rosenfeld channels the same principles into his imprint, prioritizing artistic freedom, emotional resonance, and sonic exploration.
The label's fourth release, No Drama V.2, delivers a cohesive four-track EP spanning over twenty-six minutes of forward-thinking electronic music.
Opening with Dubi, Rosenfeld crafts a composition built on contrasts and playful percussion set against a wistful melodic backdrop. Over nearly seven minutes, the track unfolds gradually, expanding into a hypnotic crescendo that captures both dance floorintensity and introspective depth.
Next comes Coral by Dulus, a Colombian-born artist, based in Santiago, Dominican Republic. With roots in guitar and vocal performance, his understanding of musical structure permeates the composition. Layers of subtle vocal textures, resonant basslines, and scattered sonic details create a sense of depth and movement. The track's hypnotic progression rewards close listening, revealing intricate nuances beneath its steady groove.
The third track, Pink Hearts, by Sydney-based producer Luka Sambe, draws from his experience in Australia's festival scene. Sambe blends melodic house structures with acid-tinged flourishes and offbeat sonic details. Each element lands with intent, building an infectious energy that feels effortless yet deeply crafted.
Closing the release is Oscar Wave by Darco, a rising artist celebrated for his immersive live performances that blend electronic textureswith organic instrumentation. The track channels early trance influences and Middle Eastern tonalities into an uplifting, psychedelic journey. Its central section bursts into a wave of euphoric release, bringing a fitting conclusion to a compilation that celebrates both diversity and unity in sound.
No Drama V.2 stands as a testament to Rosenfeld's curatorial vision and sincerity. Each track resonates with purpose, offering a glimpse into a global community of artists united by their shared pursuit of creation.
A band that quit at the top... but now they're back! Sun-Rot was one of the most promising acts of the Hungarian indie scene with their floating, soulful, dreamy, yet psychedelic sound reaching it’s peak on their 2023 album, Mirage. Unfortunately, the band split up just after the album's release, however, after a two-year hiatus,
they have now reunited and are already working on new material. Budabeats Records is not letting Mirage be forgotten by releasing this little gem for the first time on vinyl, in the form it rightfully diserves: on 180 gram marbled vinyl, limited to 200 copies worldwide.
Credits:
Vocals: Míra Mészáros
Guitars: Péter Mónos, Gergo Balla
Bass: Gergo Dorozsmai,
Drums: Timár Benjámin
Music by Péter Mónos, Benjámin Timár, Péter Gál
Cover art by Máté Kováts, Péter Mónos
Sleeve layout: Miklós Fekete
Recorded, mixed and mastered at Tom-Tom Studios by Gergo Dorozsmai
Mastered by Anders Peterson (GS Mastering & Post)
A&R: Dj Gandharva & Von Yodi
Futura Resistenza is pleased to present the latest release from the prolific, restlessly creative composer-performer Anthony Pateras, two side-long pieces - one performed by Callum G'Froerer on double-bell trumpet, the other sung by Clara La Licata - in which soloists are accompanied by numerous pre-recorded tracks of their own instrument or voice, creating acoustic halls of mirrors where the distinction between live performer and recorded accompaniment becomes difficult to perceive. Palimpsest Geometry (2020) for double-bell trumpet & tape works with rapidly pulsed single trumpet notes, at brisk tempos that hover at the perceptual threshold between rhythm and tremolo. The interaction between different rates of pulse produces skittering echoes, as if G'Froerer's layers of trumpets were really a single sound bouncing around the sonic space. There Is A Danger Only Our Mistakes Are New (2021) for voice & tape goes to work on a see-sawing two-note melodic cell, insistently transposed and transposed again, hummed or sung with open vowels, contracting to a semitone and expanding to a minor third. More than anything in the canon of Western art music, the piece calls up the criss-crossing repeated figures of Inuit vocal games or the interlocking repetitions of Banda-Linda music, where rhythmic and harmonic displacements of repeated motifs fuse together individual parts into the illusion of an impossibly rich and multi-faceted unitary sonic organism. Essentially homogeneous in texture yet built up from constantly changing details, broadly static yet always moving and shifting, these pieces exemplify Pateras' recent work while also pushing it into a new, strikingly immediate direction. Here, form grows organically out of the material itself; the results are sparkling, immersive, and quietly uncompromising. (Francis Plagne)




















