The inimitable NOTON label’s only release of 2021 comes courtesy of Alva Noto, with his ‘HYbr:ID Vol.1‘ album, a collection of music composed for a choreographic piece performed by the Staatsballett Berlin in 2019.
The album merges themes of astrophysics, fictional narratives and visual cinematic techniques through inspiration derived from static images of scientific events — a suitable pool of inspirations for the album’s mysterious and emphatic sound that opens up to swallow the listener from the first refrains of static to come purring out the speakers.
Noto’s storied past with working in the field of sound design and experimental music should serve as a strong enough precursor for the material on ‘HYbr:ID Vol.1‘: although part of the inspiration might be informed by static representations of scientific phenomena, nothing about this music is stationary, as can be expected of a piece intended for choreography.
Shaping feedback into resonant harmonics that curl around direct surges of subbass and muted and overshaped percussion, ‘HYbr:ID oval hadron II‘ morphs out of the expectant soundscapes of the opening piece to gradually form a concrete bedrock of bass and stuttering static. Although the fundamental purpose of the music is to encite movement through the surges of bass and rhythm, it achieves this through an indirect or passive feeling which steadily rises, the fire stoked steadily with rounds of spacious sound design, rather than blunt force. An unsuprisingly quality masterclass in electronic movement and shape.
”HYbr:ID Vol.1′ is scheduled for release 12 November via Noton. Order a copy direct from the label.
TRACKLIST
1. HYbr:ID oval hadron I
2. HYbr:ID oval hadron II
3. HYbr:ID oval blackhole
4. HYbr:ID oval random
5. HYbr:ID oval spin
6. HYbr:ID oval asimoo
7. HYbr:ID oval collider
8. HYbr:ID oval p dance