between systems and grounds - the overshot sessions - album review

 between systems and grounds: the overshot sessions
 album review

between systems and grounds has created a confidently gorgeous album of interdisciplinary explorations.  

A collaboration between composer Paula Matthusen and visual artist Olivia Valentine, the overshot sessions is the second album released by duo between systems and grounds, who unconventionally combines live electronics with live textile making. The clean electronic pulses, literally woven with mechanical clicking, interlock to create an emotionally moving and bewitching album.

The five tracks on the overshot sessions fall somewhere between improvisatory electronic music and experimental machining. between systems and grounds has truly found its artistic niche, exploring an interdisciplinary world completely new - an aspect becoming increasingly rarer throughout the 21st century. The album's Covid-esque influences are also abundantly clear, with the duo transforming latency bugs into musical features. Matthusen has crafted a beautiful electronic sound, focused primarily on repeated pitch materials, long tones, and very pure resultant waveforms. This allows for Valentine's loom interference to have a clear and noticeable effect on the sound.

While most likely not the original intention of the artists, the general 'pleasant-ness' of the sound timbres and harmonious content allow for the extreme experimental aspects of the album to be accepted and appreciated by a wider audience, breaching negative connotations about the appeal of experimental electronic music. between systems and grounds has created a confidently gorgeous album of interdisciplinary explorations.  


listen to and purchase the digital album available through Carrier Records on bandcamp here

© 2023 Brutal New Music Reviews

originally written and published 16 July 2023

please send any and all questions/comments/complaints/suggestions to:

brutalnewmusicreviews@gmail.com

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