zakè & ossa :: syntheticopia (zakè drone)

Meanwhile, back in the chilly vastness of space, through the cosmic field recordings and analog electronics is felt the beating heart of the human, as syntheticopia continues to hum with hushed hymnals for stargazing souls.

An interstellar mission-type concept

Space is the place—at least it is for Past Inside the Present luminary, Zach Frizzell (zakè), and sidekick Kaiton Slusher (ossa), ambinauts embarked on an interstellar mission-type concept. It proposes Astronomer, Inc. (AI), an NGA responsible for auditory research of deep space phonic transmissions and sound exploration—a disciplinary mix involving earth-based instrumentation and sound devices as well as celestial phonic emission captures.

AI’s new mission/program, syntheticopia—to collect and study the sound origins of the cosmos—envisages Zakè Drone‘s curator and his trusty assistant as flight personnel, backed up by Transmission Engineer Irisarri, who at deepspace base, Black Knoll, fine-tunes the sound captures from space’s deepest places sent back via AI’s space link transponder to go with their previous audio documents (just as well they documented their earth-based sounds prior to departure, as the flight personnel apparently never returned to their earthly home). An array of semi-modular analogue synths are infused with Tascam recorder-captured sounds and radio emissions from various NASA spacecraft. Aethereal texture, spatial drift, weathered and wobbly detuned pads a la BoC or Casino vs Japan (esp. on the gliding analog of “Space & Time” and the gilded delight of “Drifting”)—these are the voyage’s OST. Light NASA sample sprinkles, static and strange space noise swishes form base cosmic constructs for the likes of “astronomer, inc” and “syntheticopia,” drawing you into their sonic orbit with deep-pile timbres, spinning you slowly in psycho-active transport, achieving maximum peak/pique in “metric expansion.”

Drawing you into their sonic orbit with deep-pile timbres ::

A note on collaboration—as well as their own creative coupling zakè and ossa have teamed up with others—on the shadowy A Pale Shelter (PITP, 2021), for example, they were joined by PITP kindred spirit, Damien Duque aka City of Dawn. And now, fresh out of the box, the latest Module brings in another creative comrade in Chilean electronic producer FAX (Ruben Tamayo). Yet to be critically appraised, just landed as it is, a cursory skim-through indicates a further foray into deep space ‘scapes whose typically grainy textures and drones extend infinitely, chords seen through a glass darkly, faint rays of something lightening the mellifluous murk, all topped off by remixes from ASC (James Clements) and Influx (James Bernard).

Meanwhile, back in the chilly vastness of space, through the cosmic field recordings and analog electronics is felt the beating heart of the human, as syntheticopia continues to hum with hushed hymnals for stargazing souls.

syntheticopia is available on Zakè Drone. [Bandcamp]