Netherlands-based exm joins forces again with UK-based Mitoma and the results are nothing short of astounding.
A powerful 54-minute odyssey not to be missed
There’s something stirring gently in the ambient electronic waters that both exm and Mitoma flow through. A seamless migration of subtle, succinct, and scrumptious sound morsels from a distant galaxy. We wrote about this collaboration back in 2018 on their excellent F0000 release with Touched Music, described as “broken percussive glitch slivers” as well as their Kaer’Uiks’ outing on I/0 DISC EP, described as “the perfect assemblage of rigorous experimental electronic (listening) music for both mind and body.” e|m is their third collaboration that was recorded in 2021 during the lockdown.
We’re not too far isolated with e|m—its seven sequentially numbered tracks are once again stretched time capsules that evolve and transform over several minutes. Carefully executed highs and lows nestle with shifting reflections and emotive soundtracks that seem to have no beginning or end. Drifting through microscopic debris fields, this release provides a surplus of abstract tones, drones, and strange cyclones. The tiniest audible elements merge together as glitch bits form quasi-technoid shapes, only to eventually break apart until all that’s left is the sound of nothingness, open spaces, and traces of either our distant past or what lies ahead.
Drifting through microscopic debris fields ::
The ebb and flow featured throughout e|m is so profound, so multi-directional and expansive, it simply has to be absorbed from start to finish to understand its path—and even then, we’re not sure what’s elapsed in front of our eyes and ears. From minuscule clicks’n cuts, fractured glitch slices, and emotively-charged ambient strands, exm and Mitoma lay out familiar, if not parallel, sound-structures that current-era Autechre continue to do so well. A powerful 54-minute odyssey not to be missed.
e|m is available on Section 27. [Bandcamp]
