Experimental Electronic Music
Expanding rather than merging the recognized individual styles of each, Fictions results in a chronostatic set of pieces with error honored as a hidden intention (see Eno’s Oblique Strategies) via analog processes, while holding to melodic virtues and economy of means.
Melodic gestures emerge from drone surrounds—ground to figure, dissolving into field—drawing you in from perception’s margins, receding just as they seem to have settled.
Norway-based producer/musician Karl Endreson’s downtempo electronic project has been active since 2006, purveying nature-inspired soundscapes mixing ambient textures and trip-hop beats with guitar and field recordings, steeped in atmosphere infused with a deep sense of melody and nostalgia.
Each Monolake release is, of course, sui generis with a context and sound never to recur, but Interstate is unique in its way—document of a vital musical and cultural moment capturing paradigm shifts in (pre-)millennial music production; its deep textured electronics and ever-morphing cyber-rhythms a snapshot of two phonauts boundary-surfing with then cutting edge tech, causing ripples that became waves that would break over the ’00s and beyond.
Overall, Monoliths and Momentary Drifts stands as more than mere sequel to Syntheticopia, in line with ELM pioneers’ future basing, redolent not so much of machines of loving grace as of a sort of more beautiful human life, albeit ever anchored to earthly reality.
Austin-based composer/sound designer TJ Dumser (Six Missing) returned to roots for drift, sway—eschewing scale for intimacy in a minimal set mixing guitar loops and vintage synths with tactile timbres to create soundscapes for deep listening, reflection and filmic ambience.
Sprung from a blend of improvisation and composition based on minimalism and depth of (sound)field, his latest, Juxtaposed, is the fourth in a recently inaugurated series of audio works on DƎЯRDE—more experimental, electro-acoustic and cross-genre side-label of Dronarivm and Fonodroom.
A decade and a half hiatus since his last (Awash, 2012) brings new skin for the old ceremony with True Bypass on familiar ground yet with a sense of refresh.
Like Manual, Billow Observatory purveys work of delicacy and poise, and Resina is never less than engaging, frequently compelling.
Evaporator, then, sees the pop accessibility and playful experiment latent in releases from debut Drowning In A Sea Of Love (2006) to the recent Crystal Vision redirected by NF through a prism of deep electronica, trance uplift and ambient sweep; also, incidentally, continuing inclusion of fruitful team-ups with spirit kin (e.g. Border Community bud Dextro on “Baltasound” and Clark for “Orbiting Meadows”) into his lone M.O..
Years on from his tape-wrangling beginnings, with two Japan tours and a cult following behind him, Joseph Bastardo’s mid-2025 release Polyshades should have marked a defining moment for both the artist and the outer edges of electronic music—even if its quiet arrival now makes this praise overdue.
Conceived during a month-long Autumn 2024 residency in the Onsen town of Ikaho, Chalybeate distills aus and The Humble Bee’s bath-born installation into a mineral-rich ambient work where listening becomes a bodily immersion, steeped in steam, stone and subterranean drift.
