textura

Albums
36
As Lonely As D. Bowman
John Atkinson
Tom Bell
Big Bend
The Black Dog
Celer
Nicholas Chase
Chronotope Project
Mario Diaz de Leon
Ricardo Donoso
elintseeker
Brian Ellis Group
Ellis & Grainger
Gurun Gurun
Stefano Guzzetti
Heathered Pearls
Helios
Hidden Rivers
Michael Hix
Wayne Horvitz
Indigo Kid
Jerusalem In My Heart
Chad Kettering
The Last Hurrah!!
Legiac
Gary Martin
Josh Mason
Lorenzo Masotto
Andy McLeod
MultiColor
Phaedra
Qwanqwa
Thomas Ragsdale
Reanimator
Steve Roach
Michael Robinson
Steve Roden + Mem1
Santiago Salazar
Dirk Serries
Serries & Zuydervelt
Slow Meadow
Sarah Kirkland Snider
Cara Stacey
Stendeck
Phil Tomsett
Waxwing
Jeppe Zeeberg

Compilations / Mixes / Remixes / Reissues
Deep Love 15
Graveyard Tapes
Photek / H. Agen. / W. Doc.
Positive Flow

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
DJ Madd
Dragontime
Elika
Henning & Ringler
Ki Oni
Radioson
Danny Scrilla
Selaroda
Rick Wade
Erik Wøllo

Book
Stefan Goldmann

Ricardo Donoso: Machine To Machine
Denovali Records

A so-called “treatise on the psychophysics of our contemporary age,” Machine to Machine is the follow-up to Ricardo Donoso's early-2015 release Sarava Exu. In being presented with a title such as Machine to Machine, the listener might ready him/herself for a perhaps punishing set of uncompromising electronic noise productions, but as it turns out the fifty-three-minute recording is a whole lot more accessible than that title might suggest. It's stretching things a bit to characterize the ten settings as songs, yet there is nevertheless something song-like about their structures and durations. As a result, Machine To Machine registers as a surprisingly accessible work, while at the same time qualifying as a thoroughly experimental electronic creation.

In contrast to Sarava Exu, which featured contributions by Brent Tanrelo on violin and viola, Machine To Machine is a purely solo creation by the Boston-based Donoso. Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the composer, percussionist, and electronic musician has both formally studied at Berklee College of Music and performed as a drummer in the avant-death metal outfit Ehnahre and as one-half of the electronic duo Perispirit. Needless to say, Donoso draws upon all such experiences when crafting his material, Machine to Machine and otherwise.

Noise, electronica, and dub-techno are three of the primary genres he threads into the album's ten settings. Yet while noise does constitute part of the sound design, it's noise of a subdued kind, and consequently a satisfying balance is achieved within the individual tracks regardless of their stylistic differences. After “Akrasia” introduces the set with atmospheric electronica of dramatic sweep and cinematic suggestiveness, the classical strings setting “HaR1” morphs from plaintive beginnings to something more foreboding and ominous, and “Pinnacle” and “Some Buy the Locks” offer propulsive takes on synthesizer-based electronica. Indicative of the range encompassed by the recording is the fact that it can make room for both “Dance of Attunement,” a pretty lullaby-like meditation filled with music box tinklings, and “The Iron Cage,” a mystery-laden sound painting that plays like a miniature horror film soundtrack to a torture chamber episode.

With a tribal dub-techno pulse providing kinetic thrust to its burbling electronics, “Axon Terminal” could pass for a Deadbeat production. There's scene-painting aplenty but rhythmic heft, too, and in including such a muscular bottom end the track stands out as one of the collection's most memorable; “The Stretching of the Cord” likewise invites comparison to Deadbeat for the density and humidity of its atmosphere and for the punchiness of its percolating groove. And like the best Deadbeat productions, Donoso's aren't merely beat-based tracks but instead fully realized compositions packed with melodic and rhythmic incident.

September 2015