Das in Berlin ansässige Duo Pierce With Arrow, bestehend aus dem amerikanischen Techno-Producer Troy Arrow und der kolumbianischen Multimedia-Künstlerin Natalia Escobar aka Poison Arrow, hat vor kurzem seine erste LP bei Dais Records herausgebracht. “Shatter”, das auf eine Reihe an surrealen Videoarbeiten folgt, basiert auf dem giechischen Mythos von Echo und Narziss und verwebt experimentelle, teils tanzbare Elektronik mit weiträumigen Dubtechniken und gleitenden Ambientflächen zu einer unentwirrbaren Einheit. “Shatter” erschien in vier verschiedenen Vinyl-Editionen, von denen drei noch erhältlich sind.

“Considering their shared background trafficking in darkened dance floor modes, what’s most striking about Pierce with Arrow’s partnership is its rhythmic restraint. The album’s 10 tracks seethe and shudder between glamor and gloom, with only occasional dread-steeped metronomes mapping the malaise to a grid. They speak of pursuing a “spatial approach” with this project, which manifests in the music’s immersive design and patient execution, each mangled clang and rippling pool of bass allowed to reverberate its full flickering waveform.

Guest appearances by austere techno producer Konrad Black (“Obsidian Glass”) and drum n bass institution dBridge (“It’s A Love Story, After All”) flow seamlessly into the whole, subtle sculptural accents on a dimly lit descent through purgatories of longing and lust. But the shadows recede for the record’s closing cut, “Narcissus,” which swells elegiacally in a mass of devotional drones over a muted heartbeat, like Narcissus gazing upon his reflection in holy awe: elusive true beauty, finally beheld, by itself.” (Dais Records)