While modest in duration, these pieces are densely packed with intricately programmed electro, broken rhythms, braindance flourishes, and warped modular sequences that shift shape as quickly as they emerge.
Dense with ideas, rich with unpredictability
Jonathan Fielder’s Latchwork project, contrakilter, released through Schematic Music Company, is built around sixteen tracks—each a concise fragment of sonic expression.. While modest in duration, these pieces are densely packed with intricately programmed electro, broken rhythms, braindance flourishes, and warped modular sequences that shift shape as quickly as they emerge.
It’s an unruly, fascinating body of work—dense with ideas, rich with unpredictability. Modular dissonance collides with jagged electro forms, constantly mutating just as their patterns begin to reveal themselves. What unfolds is a kinetic swirl of sound design: calculated yet chaotic, industrially tinged but never fully detached from melodic exploration. Each segment moves with sharp precision, channeling the essence of IDM while coloring outside its traditional boundaries. It’s a carefully fractured ecosystem of noise, rhythm, and ambience—measured but never restrained. Taken as isolated sketches, these audio vignettes offer just enough breathing room; consumed collectively, they feel deliberate and whole.
Certain cuts—“Raku,” “Cyl,” “Thortex,” “641,” “Tinn Tulsun,” “Re Cyc,” and “Ponyx”—stand out with an immediacy that suggests an alternate trajectory. Originally crafted for a live set performed in early 2024, these pieces could’ve easily formed the spine of a standalone EP, sparking momentum toward a future release. Still, their inclusion here feels earned—compact bursts of electricity that demand attention and reward repeat listens.
Written, recorded, and mixed by Jonathan Fielder
Artwork by Vonnie Fielder
Visual short by technobisto
contrakilter is available on Schematic. [Bandcamp]
