Neophyte Thanasis Kaproulias combines microtones and overtones with drones, field recordings, and ambient textures with engaging rigor. Nothing is overly accented, and no single element commands attention. Instead, the clammy oppressive grayness of tone that animates the album opener rubs acquiescent shoulders with the shivers and twitches of the digital tones, placed with forensic precision, while processed field recordings whisper in the distance, darting between dark sub-bass pulses.
In the rasping microtones and the general gurgle and gargle of some of the textures, elements of mimicry factor heavily into this imposing and rich opening twenty-minute composition, but Kaproulias blends and transcends these modes in "Torched Estates", the second and final chapter in this work. As with the first piece, it is austere but tactile, spartan but deliciously immersive, yet in a stronger sense it gathers and recedes, creeping through cavernous digital spaces, periodically lit up by evanescent skeins of sound that rustle and shrink away in convincing manners. At just under twenty minutes, this second work seems self-sufficient, and Kaproulias is thus able to settle into marking his own time, alert, poised, and aware. Within this framework, each sound is given just enough time and space to develop its own dynamic. The end result is a robust and powerful accumulation of effects.
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