As I press play, pronouns, genres and gender all lose any meaning and purpose. And for some reason I know what to expect, without actually losing that feeling of excitement whenever I listen to a new release. It’s like pieces of an old puzzle I played with before, that get rearranged in a whole new way, and everything still makes sense.
Sounds bend and lights melt, and the perception of the surroundings is changed. We are in a constant dialogue with each other through music, since music is perceived differently by different pairs of ears and as each listener gets lost in its flow, rediscovering his or her own identity being changed. And then you enter the world of Rrose Sélavy.
Rrose - Arc Unknown (2016)
Rrose doesn’t offer your regular dancefloor oriented music, but rather a more trance inducing composition, with a highly aestheticized and conceptual framework, which builds a drone-y, almost soporific atmosphere, dragging you into a space of introspection, where music is strongly connected to every part of the body, not just the ears.
This EP is an invitation to experience music at its fullest. Dark tinged sounds pull you from reality and then throw you in a meditation space. You can feel its texture, its roughness around the edges of sounds which materialize into objects. Multi textured music which fills in the spaces between the dancers, keeping the crowd in constant motion, allowing each individual to dwell in geometric sounds.
Arc Unknown makes you think of galaxies, planets orbiting around a source of sonic vibration, with multiple layers unfolding as the track progresses, so that in the end you get lost in a kaleidoscope of rhythms and echoes.
Specimen 2 feels like a pulsating heart spiraling down into a subconscious recollection of dreams and fears. As the percussions create an ominous feeling, distorted moaning voices resembling chants come to haunt the listener.
Finally, Specimen 3 creates a sonic collage, with elements that bind together in a coherent flow of percussions and droney beats, while fluctuating waves of intense angst seem to embrace the listener like quicksand.
Rrose’s solo debut is an immersive experience where every dissonance and chaotic association of sounds starts to make sense once we stop trying to put it in a box. It is like a waterfall of emotions poured over the listener.
Arc Unknown exemplifies Rrose’s hypnotic abstract approach and will be out on vinyl and digital November 18th, on Function’s Infrastructure label.
Infrastructure would also like to announce a series of upcoming label showcases, which includes an Rrose live set November 18th at Berghain alongside Function (live), Vatican Shadow (live), Inland (live), Campbell Irvine (live), BMG (live), and Karl Meier (event info: http://berghain.de/event/1820)
Infrastructure Label Nights:
18.11.2016 INF @ Berghain
25.11 2016 INF @ Goa, Rome, IT
26.11.2016 INF @ Dude, Milan, IT
03.12.2016 INF @ MMA, Munich, DE
30.12.2016 INF @ Concrete, Paris
11.03.2016 INF @ Hinterhof, Basel, CH
-Marie Bungau