The dominant emotion on display in the album is a contemplative moodiness—most tracks are led by acoustic piano melodies, which often interweave with subtly manipulated violin and cello arrangements.
[Release page] r.roo has constructed a lovely world on mgnovenie, which comes to us courtesy of Tympanik Audio. The dominant emotion on display in the album is a contemplative moodiness—most tracks are led by acoustic piano melodies, which often interweave with subtly manipulated violin and cello arrangements. The beats are mainly in the classic glitch-hop style of Sending Orbs and Merck artists like Proem and Kettel, a sound which seems to be undergoing a most welcome Renaissance of late.
After “vdokh” opens the album with an all-piano introduction, “medlenno” provides an examplar of r.roo’s style: a sparse thump-click rhythm leaves plenty of space for keys and strings to alternate, evocative of early Murcof. The song develops and builds on this foundation until, halfway through its eight minute length, wobble bass and a whipcrack snare briefly battle for supremacy, then trail off into the distance. It’s a well-executed pattern, repeated with some variation on “kasanie,” “otkrovenie,” “au fall,” “thank you”, and others, but at fourteen tracks and a full 70 minute runtime, the standouts are the ones that break the mold. “one day,” for example, builds an acoustic plucked-guitar riff and wordless vocalization into an exuberant, rolling climax, and the closing minutes of “we will never see how people” enter territory familiar to fans of Tympanik’s backcatalogue, with a proto-industrial crunch on the clattering drums.
r.roo’s piano, which forms the spine of most of the album, varies in tempo and style from minor chord adagio passages to rapid, intricate two-handed work, as on “from you,”, perhaps my favorite track on the album. If there’s a nit to pick, it’s that the stylistic consistency can sometimes feel like too much of the same thing—still, though, if the touchpoints and influences (particularly Murcof) resonate with you, mgnovenie is well worth adding to your short list of music that proves you can nod your head and stroke your chin at the same time.
mgnovenie is available on Tympanik Audio. [Release page]
