Andrea De Witt — Self Titled

Andrea De Witt is a seasoned traveler in both acoustics and electronic fields, having cut his teeth as a bass player in the 1990s, and later, moving into collaborative work with a host of electro-acoustic acts. I say this because the measured and deeply intentional way that the music on his first solo album develops over the course of its 12 tracks is the not the work of someone who is merely experimenting willy-nilly with synthesis. No, De Witt is like a semiotician, breaking down the component elements of his sounds, one by one. With the exception of two tracks titled, “PIANOCHROM”, the album is arranged according to dates.

“MAI 5” opens with processed voice and ethereal background, sans any rhythmic component. Okay, good enough, but then comes “JUN 4”, and wham! An electronic kick drum pierces through the sonic quietude and proceeds to develop a groovy, if off-kilter, beat. Then we get “AUG 5”, which deals in the subharmonic, while reducing the kick drum to a higher frequency beat, and so on and so forth. The formula might seem telegraphic or predictable as I am describing it, but to the ears, nothing could be further from the truth. Each new sound element is introduced in all its concreteness, building discrete patterns that train our listening for whatever lies down the road. The final cut, and the only other that rejects the date formula, is the rather self-consciously dubbed, “AMB 523”, which must be short for ambient? The album ends in lovely dissolution, free of all of the piercing, well-placed vocabulary we revelled in before.

Fans of minimalist electronic music with a strong sense of self-reflexive composition, will certainly find much here to enjoy. My fear is that De Witt, at the end of this stellar work, is hinting at a move to the calmer shores of ambience, For what it’s worth, I hope he goes back to the beginning.   For more info