Andrea Cherchi describes his new album ‘(L) ?’ as “a sonic diary” and it indeed captures a feeling of analogue diarism throughout the seven tracks. The texture is heavily ferric and saturated in all the right ways. The compositions convey an atmosphere of reflective contemplation through the use of simple harmonies and melodies which resonate in unhurried negative space, transporting the listener to their own version of this introverted interior space. Lush synth pads coexist alongside and underpin wow and flutter-laden motifs and occasional low-end percussive bass figures punctuate the morass of warm, warbly drones. The analogue temperature of the album? Unrelentingly warm. Moments of tape manipulation lend a gently undulating motion to the various synth and guitar dyads and triads which interact pleasantly with the shorter swoops of harmonic structure. Never do we feel as if a melody is forced upon us. Everything is consonant, with occasional passing notes or chromatic tensions nudging things along. The compositions breathe and unfold at the right times. Subtly overdriven, the character of the analogue medium here is essential; the musical contents seem suspended in the simultaneously airless and open-ceilinged ether of magnetic tape, where they are transformed.
Purchase Cassette: Andrea Cherchi – L(?)
