Random Circuits

First things first. Archipel , for those unaware, is a design and music collective. A place for musicians and designers to collaborate on new, fresh projects - hopefully pushing boundraries and concepts into uncharted territories. The music is made from a shared library of sounds.

I was curios to see if Jesse Somfay, an artist I’ve always enjoyed hearing, had released anything new lately. To my surprise I had missed quite a few of this man’s output. Much of it present on Archipel. Curious as I am, I checked the MP3 section of Archipel’s site out and wow - quite a few releases are free to put your grubby, greedy and eager downloading hands on. A wide variety of styles and artists are represented. Sweet as candy.

Now onto Mr Somfay’s work. In order of my downloading & listening spree:

Arch036: Serendip
A release consisting of one 25 minute long epic track; Fricative White (from a whisper to a scream) . This is exactly what I was looking for when searching for more of Jesse’s music. Mature, fuzzy, well developed and emotive techno built from sounds as diverse as birds and white noise. The execution is flawless and the piece never gets dull.

Arch027: Of Ancestral Infernos and Lysergic Embers (Lost Tales of ‘03′04)
In stark contrast to Serendip, Of Ancestral.. is a complete album which collects ten full songs. We also get to see a slightly more bouncy side to Somfay’s usual delivery. The opening track Getting Some Sleep In Your Memories is particularly mezmerizing. Warming, ethereal atmospherics, steady kicks, intercepted by clicking hihats - a common theme on this balanced and steady full-length. It works. Some tracks breaks off from this template to inject some fresh air and diversity (even some danceable tunes).

Arch002: Love affair with the moon
More subtle this time, these three songs need more attention and re-listens to fully grown on you. Quiet and non-obtrusive, let Love Affair with the Moon take you to a world full of understated, passive melancholy.

Go follow the links to Archipel’s pages and get downloading already. Your ears need this. Keep your eye out for vinyls from this labels as well, as they’re strictly limited and features beautiful art work!

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