As the artist accurately describes, these are analog accidents that rinse, repeat, and reflect—stitched together like an aural set of strands. Both organic and orchestrated with a lively feel, One x 3 is a welcomed if not ghostly three-piece suite with nuanced exploratory sounds.
A ghostly three-piece suite with nuanced exploratory sounds
Previously known as Gys (recall Art D’Echo on Component from 2003), Todd Gys has had the Paratoma project in his “back pocket” for nearly 20 years. Taking un-synced dub techno extracts with live bass guitar, analog drum machines and modulars—space echo and compressors were recorded to an old Roland SP-404. Mistakes were part of the process as One x 3 began to take shape. Certainly a new realm of sonic creativity, this collection is reminiscent of early Stefan Betke (aka Pole) albums 1, 2, and 3 from the late 90s on Matador. The subdued and almost aquatic soundscapes featured on these three pieces (ranging from 7 to 11 minutes) are at once improvised, brittle, eerie, and expose dub glitches that shapeshift as each track expands and contracts with a variety of tangled tones and drones. The ebb and flow thread throughout these minuscule time capsules are so far removed from the foreground that they become distant shadows—fractured music coming together but from a drifting plain. Magnetic clicks’n cuts swirl around like dreamlike states of consciousness—never too far from reach, but somehow transparent and elusive. Microscopic audio bytes from far away corridors echo as One x 3 treads thinly textured scratches, clips and melodic brushes that feels like a full collection condensed into three abstract compositions. As the artist accurately describes, these are analog accidents that rinse, repeat, and reflect—stitched together like an aural set of strands. Both organic and orchestrated with a lively feel, One x 3 is a welcomed if not ghostly three-piece suite with nuanced exploratory sounds.
One x 3 is available on Bandcamp.
