Autistici :: Familiarity Folded (Audiobulb)

This release marks the first in a three-part series honoring an ongoing online collaboration with fellow experimental musicians: Familiarity Folded, Familiarity Enfolded, and Familiarity Unfolded.

A delicate choreography of sonic intricacies

Autistici (aka David Newman)—seasoned by releases on respected labels such as 12k, Audiobulb, Home Normal, Hibernate, and Eilean Rec—demonstrates a masterful ability to reshape emotive landscapes and fractured sonic environments. The opening segment presents a four-track suite shaped in collaboration with Jacek Doroszenko, Russ Young, and Corey Gordon, each contributing to a delicate choreography of sonic intricacies, where coarse drones and exploratory electronic elements intertwine with representative sleek artwork by Jeff Dungfelder. This is especially evident on the nine-minute opener “Fluctuating State,” where ambient fragments and digital debris tether synthesized expressions to raw environmental recordings.

Autistici and Jacek Doroszenko ignite the journey with “After Water Formed A Shape,” a slow-burning stream of organic flutter and densely layered noise, where analog hues collide with glitch-driven mechanisms. Their shared vision continues in “Your Modal Realism,” a surreal audio tapestry where abstract tonalities and minute sonic detail drift through mosaic-like scenes, navigating the terrain between memory and imagination. Within these dreamlike reveries, Autistici seems most at ease—dwelling in the strange beauty of the in-between.

The suite concludes with “Observing Hyphae,” a sprawling twelve-minute piece crafted by Autistici, Russ Young, and Corey Gordon. Inspired by the filamentous threads that form the foundation of fungal life, the composition unfurls gradually—each sound fragment branching outward, multiplying and evolving like a living system. Here, the trio conjures a sonic habitat where ambient electronics and field recordings coalesce into a luminous web of sound, a quietly astonishing ecosystem where every note breathes and expands with quiet purpose.

We look forward to the next two installments—Familiarity Enfolded and Familiarity Unfolded—as Audiobulb continues to refine its craft, sculpting sound into immersive compositions that offer a sense of otherworldly refuge and sonic introspection.

Familiarity Folded is available on Audiobulb. [Bandcamp]