Isolation is embraced on the 2LP, chillingly clinical sounds are thawed by warming moments to bring a humanity to lonesome scores. An exceptional addition to these musicians’ expanding the canon of electronics.
Morphology have artic frosts and the clang of steel in their audio DNA
There are styles of electronic music that eschew the machine. The cerebral murmurings of ambient, the future jazz of techno, even the body funk of house; all put the human at the center. Then there are those that remove the meat and memory of mankind, where the binary codes and switches of the electrical are at the cold mechanical heart. Electro. Morphology have artic frosts and the clang of steel in their audio DNA. Their latest album, Fractures, combines the computer world with that of nature, a realm of wind and wires are employed to untangle deeper questions.
Fragile tones whirl in “Hydrosphere,” delicate notes gliding above bulbous basslines and an incising beat. This seven-minute journey marks the path of the album, a digital landscape of organic oblongs and synthetic shapes conjured from the imaginations of Michael Diekmann and Matti Turunen. The listener is led out onto the frozen expanses of “Icefields.” Crystalline sheets shift underfoot before a snare and string shatter into sonic kaleidoscope of wintery sun. The ground below “Drumlin” appears steadier, bass and beat following a familiar pattern. This changes as the track climbs, cymbals and hi-hats tumble as the melody slides on slick liquid lines. Drizzle and mist obscure the wetlands of “Spherules,” sodden basslines and flinty drums are lashed with keys.
Ghostly strings recall primal undercurrents ::
The open plains are left for the electrical fizzes and reverb of “Fragmented.” Acute angles filleted, tones tempered while ghostly strings recall primal undercurrents. Textured percussion gives way to a softened melody in the melting “Curie Point,” acid bubbles coming to the surface in this finely balanced piece. The palette turns a shade darker with “Rift Valley.” Abstract forms loom behind sharpened lances of snare, murky threats retreating in solemn breaks. Brighter notes pierce the gloom with the finale. “Metamorphic” maintains the aquatic pulses that permeate the collection, rasping rhythms forming a flowing foundation from which silvery notes rise.
Morphology are masters of their trade. With the passage of time, they have honed their skills and refined their expression. Fractures is a journey that takes in the wilderness of their native Finland, the majesty and terror of ice and rock juxtaposed by the intimacy that this environment’s fragility evokes. Countering the natural is the psychological. Isolation is embraced on the 2LP, chillingly clinical sounds are thawed by warming moments to bring a humanity to lonesome scores. An exceptional addition from musicians who continue to expand the canon of electronics.
Fractures is available on De:tuned. [Bandcamp]
