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KURT RALSKE, "//AMOR. 0+01"

Kurt Ralske is a NYC-based artist, composer, producer and engineer akaCathars and former head of late '80s/early '90s indy popsters UltraVivid Scene. These days Ralske composes entirely upon a g3 Powerbookwith the Max/MSP language. "//amor. 0+01" is the debut under his ownname and it is very similar in sound to the Cathars album "", both ofwhich are from 1999. The title track, as the title seems to suggest,briefly expresses love with digital bits: a melodic loop, a tidal cloudof sound, intermittent glitches and bass swells. "new kyrie" does muchthe same for nearly 14 minutes, minus the glitches and loop and plus aconstant thump that sounds much like a steadily dribbled basketball.The final track "forgiven" takes up the better half of the disc at justunder 30 minutes and proves to be the most minimal and rewarding. Herethe only sound is long swathes of deep drone and drifting ambiance.Whereas the first two tracks leave me somewhat indifferent this one ispurely captivating, either as foreground or background soundtrack.There is also a ROM video for the title track, but unfortunately noneof the 4 computers I've tried were able to read the disc - audio ordata - so perhaps there's an error with the discs. I'll be e-mailingSub Rosa soon to find out.

 

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