(Histamine Tapes, cassette, digital)
Using programming language TidalCycles, Montpelier’s Diskless live-codes a VST synthesizer and essentially hacks it on Dive. The results are long-form drones, frozen in states of entropy. Each of the seven tracks is very long — exactly 10:36 minutes — and none of them builds or breaks down; they merely exist in a singular tonal statement. Slight variations and sonic colors creep in as the tracks play out, but Dive is essentially a study in stillness.
The tracks are named with scientific terms for ocean depths, from “Epipelagic” to “Benthic,” as Diskless takes the listener on a conceptual deep-sea dive that is at once peaceful and strangely unnerving.
Key Track: “Abyssopelagic”
Why: It’s all nuance, but by halfway through Dive, the synth drone has taken on a deeper, more complex color that creates a sort of musical tension.
Where: histaminetapes.bandcamp.com
This article appears in Aug 17-23, 2022.
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