This is quite a strong record, with a natural and well-executed arc, diverse sounds and a lot of density. θέρος clocks in at 44 minutes and offers a deep delve into mythical sounds and spaces.
Focused on emergent storytelling through music
It’s a prolific year for greek producer Onepointwo—only months after having released the baroque and psychedelic Σociend, they are back with θέρος (Theros), a tight LP clocking in at 44 minutes and offering a deep delve into mythical sounds and spaces.
Σociend was a very ambitious project, featuring long tracks and an explicit drive to work on repetitive patterns—Theros on the other hand seems to be focused on emergent storytelling through music. The cuts on this album are often multifaceted and evocative, be it in their lyricism like on “Ghost Garden,” or the nocturnal and eerie atmosphere of the last part of the album starting from “Helios.” Fans of Wisp-like IDM will surely enjoy the percussion work featured throughout Theros as well as this old-world-speaking-anew atmosphere that gave seminal LPs like The Shimmering Hour (Rephlex, 2009) their charm.
But Theros is not simply an exercise in melodic nostalgia, even if on that level it is a success—”Persepolis,” for example, features a more prominent lead synth line, and “Shades” is built on a simple arpeggiated progression. Still Onepointwo finds the room to pack in more abstract pieces, like the very beginning of the first track of the album, where a sound is given life and weight in a jubilant way.
This is quite a strong record, with a natural and well-executed arc, diverse sounds and a lot of density. A good addition to the collection of anyone with a taste for underground electronic music.
Θέρος is available on Woodford Halse. [Bandcamp]
