Plasma D'arc — Ellipse

Plasma D'arc is the duo of instrumentalist Nikola Jan Gross and synthesist/producer Gaspard Gigon.  Their debut release, Ellipse, is available for cassette or download through Swiss label SBIRE, a thirty-minute release with six tracks averaging five-seven minutes each.

The first track introduces electronic loops made out of recordings of acoustic instruments. There is seemingly a flute as well as a plucked sound like an acoustic guitar or possibly a harp.  However, the only credited instruments are saxophone, clarinet and electronics, so there is some clever manipulation going on here, or use of synthesiser patches with acoustic modelling.  This track progresses through circular folkish melodies, and the first clear use of the saxophone is in its second half.

After a couple tracks, the album begins to establish a pattern for the style in which a rhythm is established primarily through abstract sounds, like small fragments of voice or bits of static and air (though something closer to a drum machine is used later in the recording),  overlaid with somber melodic content from various winds.  Arpeggiated scalar patterns fade gradually in and out.  There is some dub influence in the sine wave sub bass, and the overall effect is similar to a group such as Seefeel, where instrumental tones are sampled into a hazy hypnotic electronic repetition.

There's a significant amount of layering going on here, with a smooth development of one melody into the next; however, it isn't so much a build-up, as it seems the energy level never changes, nor is there any particular climactic moment at any point.  I gradually realised that every single sound on the recording is an 8-beat loop at roughly the same tempo as all the other tracks.  Every pattern or riff is exactly the same length, almost as if the whole recording is a performance for some kind of looper pedal with far fewer settings than one would have on a computer.  As a fan of various repetitive electronic dance genres, the kind of repetition on this album is far more rigid than the norm in techno, house, etc, which typically have sounds at different phrase lengths to contrast each other.

The most interesting thing about this album is the tones achieved by sampling Nikola Jan Gross' saxophone and clarinet.  The compositions, however, feel unadventurous, a fairly standard form of cinematic downtempo, and the energy level begins to drag with the rigid loop structure employed across the entire recording.  The beats, comprised of cut-up, non-percussive noises, often had a busy quality, yet established no momentum, and felt like an underthought element of the sound.  There are a few moments of eerie atmospheric brilliance, like the 5th piece "Onyx", but in general, it is not a particularly distinguishable recording. For more