Asolaar
Interceptor
Kvitnu

Don't cry for Asolaar, Argentina. These days there's another Argentinan artist playing around, but Lionel Messi deals with, or plays some other, uh, 'genre' (or maybe someother field, or pitch) than Dario Pinto Calvis does. Experimental electronic music producer and label owner Dario Pinto Calvis has, as Asolaar, put out recordings since 2006. He has also recorded and released under the moniker Audio Das Poly (along with Guillermo Mugular?). He runs the Sincro Netlabel (Sincro has arranged events since 2001, and was established as a label in 2006), but last year's Asolaar album, Obliterate was released by the German label Metaphysik. And, his new album is launched by the excellent Ukrainian Kvitnu label, with beautiful design (as always) by Zavoloka.

Kvitnu describes Asolaar's Interceptor to be a "...honest, raw, beautiful and powerful noise document from Argentina" holding "...ten tracks of pure pulsating energy, formed into precise sharp edged structures. Accurate harsh minimalism with highly explosive attitude." Kvitnu also points out the music of Asolaar to be somewhat 'related to' the sound of Kvitnu artists like Sturqen, Matter, Kotra and Pan Sonic. Which means complex sound patterns, not for the faint-hearted, or narrow-minded. This is mind-expanding, experimental stuff.

Interceptor is a short an efficient album, as the ten tracks clcok in at some 24 minutes. The comspositions sparkles with energy and instensity. This is electric and ecclectic stuff. The record is bursting with a buzz of threatning, looming darkness. This sounds close to a short circuit, or near an overload. The soundscapes are intense, loaded, and somewhat exhausting. Yet, the works and cirling rhytmic and sligthly melodic loops of Asolaar are intriguingly fascinating, with robotic precision. Even though it's hard to pick some single tracks, I'd like to mention "Random Violence" and "Lu In Dimension". The album functions as a whole, within its constant monotony, and its sound transferred as energy like some sort of 'sound radiation'. Waves or rays which you cannot see, but which you can hear.

To quote Kvitnu one final time: "This release is going to be a strong addition to a 'heavy wing' of Kvitnu sound: Controlled randomness of squished rhythms and melodies, crashed together into one deep and complex work."

Copyright © 2014 Håvard Oppøyen