This is by no means an easy or immediate record to digest. The beauty of it resides in a lot of details and the hidden chiseling of Dusha’s craft. Nevertheless, it is a compelling sonic journey, expertly paced, and generously delivered.
A compelling sonic journey
If you poke around in Eurorack circles here and there, you might have come across some jams by artist Anna Martinova, who publishes music under two main projects: Tulpa and Dusha. Anna is a musician who works mainly (but not only) with a modular system—she is also an educator in synthesis and electronic music. Dissolution of Ego, her new release under the name Dusha, is a real gem. Let’s dive into this new addition to Detroit Underground’s catalog:
There is something monumental about Dissolution of Ego—a slight paradox, maybe, as the album’s title and cover art point us in the direction of deconstruction and the unraveling of a tight stone knot. But it is hard not to inhale sharply as you realize that if you want to take this album in in one sitting, you’re up for eighteen tracks of modular and sequenced music, some performed and recorded live, others layered up in the studio (the Bandcamp page helpfully details which are which). And those tracks are not short either—it’s over an hour and twenty minutes of music. As such, the album is best enjoyed in quiet, good conditions—at home, on headphones, or on a decent sound system. There is a lot going on in this album, and narrowing it down in a review is necessarily going to leave some aspects by the wayside.
The album is centered around the idea of a meditative, somewhat transcendental experience—”an ambient journey album into oneself, an expedition into subliminal passages.” While the first tracks gives us these ambient vibes, we also pick up whiffs of Datach’i and his intricately designed, unmistakably electronic grooves. Some moments are pure ambient, like “Angelic Message” or “Self-Love.” Interestingly, these are among the shortest cuts here. While a lot of other tracks feature the lush, aerial pads that structure most of the album, they will regularly give way to some beat or groove, which then takes the form of a more or less psychedelic jam taking off. The poster child for this method of arranging is the centerpiece of the record, “Secret Path,” towering above the other tracks at 13:32. This could have been an EP all by itself, maybe accompanied by another piece for a neat 2-side structure. Shout-out also to the beautifully old-school “Voltage Awakening” and its Ciani-like idea of keeping a sequence going while changing waveform for smooth to harsh. The album oscillates this way between air and rhythm, digital and analog, electronic and organic—several cuts feature vocals in both English and Russian, and the closer is a delicate piano improvisation around a piece aptly titled “Self Love.”.
This is by no means an easy or immediate record to digest. The beauty of it resides in a lot of details and the hidden chiseling of Dusha’s craft. Nevertheless, it is a compelling sonic journey, expertly paced, and generously delivered.
Dissolution of Ego is available on Detroit Underground.
