Dabei wird vorhandenes Material nicht nur verändert, sondern in eine neue Form überführt. Klänge werden geloopt, gestreckt, fragmentiert oder erneut eingebunden, was als Verfahren an Denk- und Erinnerungsprozesse erinnert, bei denen sich frühere Wahrnehmungen und aktuelle Erfahrungen überlagern. Klanglich bewegen sich die beiden Alben zwischen elektronisch aufgeladenen, beinahe aquatischen Texturen mit flimmernden und prasselnden Details, akustischen Instrumenten und Field Recordings sowie offen konturierten Arrangements, in denen sich entrückte Stimmungen entfalten. Dabei bleibt die Handschrift von Autistici deutlich hörbar: eine sorgfältige, narrative Klangarchitektur, die immer wieder Momente der Introspektion ermöglicht.

“Familiarity Folded” entstand mit Jacek Doroszenko, Russ Young und Corey Gordon. “Familiarity Enfolded” enthält Arbeiten mit Tomo-Nakaguchi, A Dancing Beggar, OdNu und erneut Russ Young. Das Artwork beider Veröffentlichungen stammt von Jeff Dungfelder, der neben seinem grafischen Werk v.a. unter dem Namen Ümlaut mit eigenen musikalischen Arbeiten bekannt ist. Beide Alben sind als Download erhältlich.

“The Ronroco is a stringed instrument of the Andean regions and it is the baritone relative of the charango. Its sound box was traditionally made from the shell of an armadillo or tortoise but is now commonly made of wood. It typically has 10 strings in five courses of 2 strings each. Rococo is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration. It combines asymmetry, undulating curves and elaborate ornamentation to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement. Inspired by the ronroco album of Gustavo Santaolalla, OdNu uses the ronroco as a source of sound and takes it to new territories by exploring sound deconstructions and decomposing it through effects chains that include a modular system, Zoia patches and a Blooper to create a lush palette of sounds that even though they have originated from the Ronroco it’s at times hard to imagine its source. The album is also full of bubbling rococo ronroco arpeggios that exude melancholic melodies supported by the addition of synth sounds and field recordings. All of these elements takes the album outside of the world music realm and into an experimental micro sound and textural dreamscape full of subconscious memories from OdNu’s Argentinian past”. (Audiobulb)

“It was the philosopher Aristotle that first coined the phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” In the case of the new album Abandoned Spaces by OdNu + Ümlaut (Michel Mazza & Jeff Düngfelder), this rings true. Both artists have lived many years in New York City, and both now reside in the countryside a few hours north of the city. And even though they only recently became acquaintances (through Audiobulb Records) their shared life experience made them perfect for this partnership. The result are compositions that reveal unexpected sounds and new ways of listening. Abandoned Spaces merges both artists’ distinctive sounds, talents and approaches to music making into an album that is full of otherworldly textures and melodies. Using a reductive approach to the compositions but with meticulous attention to detail Mazza and Düngfelder create jazzy vignettes that flow through heavily processed electric guitars, bass lines and drums that weave themselves into an ambient landscape of chiming micro sounds and ephemeral melodies. Songs flow into one another like water, which lends a devotional feel to the listening experience. In its truest sense, Abandoned Spaces is a tone poem. A merging of seemingly distinctive musical genres, it is an album of pristine sound design and unclassifiable style.” (Audiobulb)

“My Own Island is the result of my latest explorations within the immersive music realm and is my first Dolby Atmos album. My last album Expansive Nothingness was mixed binaurally and I really appreciated the spaciousness that the technology lent to my compositions. After that album was released in 2021, I became curious about Dolby Atmos and so alongside the creative process of composing this latest release, I was also figuring out the technical aspects of designing and setting up my own Dolby Atmos studio. I was interested in creating a studio environment that is immersive so that my composing, editing, mixing and mastering experience was also immersive. And in the process, I felt like I was creating my own island. My Own Island is about that personal creative space and individual internal reality that each of us has. Each track on the album are poems within poems where I encoded my ideas and feelings into the sounds, loops and melodies. Even the album titles can be read like a poem. The guitar is the main instrument (even synth sounds are played with a midi guitar) with the addition of supporting instruments like voice, charango, clarinet, prepared vst piano, various synths and field recordings. All sounds pass through hardware effects back and forth before being recorded in my DAW. The mix is also a big part of the composition where I work with fader and knob gestures as an expressive tool in order to add a more human feeling. The result is a weaving in and out of leitmotifs that travel through ambient landscapes, dub infused passages or even sometimes song-like structures. A humanistic, expressionist, unclassified album guided by intuition and mixed in Dolby Atmos and made entirely on my own island.

@ Bandcamp

“OdNu’s latest release Expansive Nothingness is a binaural 3D textural experimental guitar ambient album. It was recorded throughout the weird year of 2020 as a way for Michel to cope and channel his feelings on the events that took place. He discovered that even the most intense, chaotic and surreal realities can become harmonious when we don’t let fear control us and we allow ourselves to observe from a perspective of expansive nothingness.

Michel uses the electric guitar as the main sound source for this album but always very processed, sometimes to the unrecognizable and often pushing the guitar sound to the breaking point. Loopy leitmotifs come and go knitting feelings and ideas and creating a space that for a time seems unable to contain itself. In this way he is able to create music that is visceral, raw and dramatic and he pushes sound to experimental directions without losing clean and recognizable melody and emotion.” (Audiobulb)

@ Michel Mazza