The Answer Is In The Beat

Ricardo Donoso: A Song For Echo LP (Kathexis, 2014) + Beginning Of The Shape EP (Denovali, 2014)

October 25, 2014 at 5:28 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Sound designer and electronic artist Ricardo Donoso has been racking up a pretty sizeable discography of vinyl and tape releases on Digitalis the past few years, but now he’s branching out with an LP on his own label and a free digital EP on Denovali, in anticipation of a new album for the label next year. A Song For Echo is a 7-part epic work which touches on rhythmic pulses but never fully immerses itself into structured beats. The album mostly focuses on dark and mysterious, yet bright and alluring synthetic atmospheres. Parts 1 and 6 have some clattering moments, 3 dips a little bit into shuddering beats, and the final part centralizes a fast, gabber-like beat, surrounded by dark synth clouds and metallic squealing.

Beginning Of The Shape is centered around 7-minute “Shape Collateral”, a moody, cavernous piece which sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a particularly illuminating documentary about space or nature. There’s also a darker, more desolate “Condemned Version” of the piece as the EP’s final track. In between is “The View Of The Overlook (Rendition)”, an icy-cold beatless variation on the “Shape Collateral” melody. This EP sounds like it’s sure to be the beginning of something vibrant and intriguing.