Haiku delivers an enigmatic release on France-based electronic label Parametic:
a CD sans liner notes in a metal tin. It’s just you and the music on this one; you
have to tempt fate, trust your instincts, pray to your Gods for guidance — whatever
sort of external inspiration you cling to when you slip a mystery disc in your
player. And, if your deities are listening, you’ll get something similar to what I
got: an hour of electronic ambience with a Gridlock motif that shuffles, bleats,
chirps, and patters with insouciant playfulness.
Most of the nine tracks unfold in spaces longer than five minutes, letting their
rhythms bounce and percolate through diminutive iterations. Instrumental electronic
music can be the extended study of rhythmic theme and variation and Haiku
extrapolates and ruminates on an ambience of sound and a granulated spectrum of
beats across the length of a single track. “Track 03” hops and scatters with a
generative hand-drum rhythm, and “Track 06” builds from tiny metallic elements into
a shuffling, echoing sonata of electronic melodies and muffled drum structures. A
tiny pattern of water drops falls across a slow ambient expanse in “Track 07.”
“Track 09” coughs and hums like an old motor, a slowed soundtrack for a
retro-futuristic space ride at the local carnival, full of swoops and bleeps and
sliding scales of plucked wire.
There is a place somewhere between structured noise and blissful ambience, a spot on
the sliding scale that Haiku calls his own. Synthese is a well crafted and
solid release, further solidifying Parametric as a label that should be on your
short list. Haiku’s release may not stun you into breathless admiration, but
it is certainly a pleasant pastime. Call it a soundtrack to vanish into while
you’re waiting for machines to all finish their spin cycles: you can get lost in
the cadences and the modulations.
Synthese is out now on Parametric.
