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Buy lossless digital version in our Bandcamp digital storeTracklist
01. digital monads 01:59
02. utility dust 09:49
03. interior motives 07:02
04. mager/choral 10:27
05. adherent terrain 08:53
06. gif ooze 04:23
07. inchoate decline 04:30
08. bit debris 02.51
Total time: 50:09
Credits
All music composed by Max Arsava
Recorded by Tobias Ober at Bonello Studio Berlin on December 15/16 2022
Mixed by Tobias Ober
Mastered by Friedrich Störmer
Graphics and layout by Davide Lorenzon
Produced by Max Arsava and Aut Records with the support of Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst
Description
The American writer David Foster Wallace once noted that abstraction tends to impinge on us primarily during moments of calm, suggesting that one of the reasons why we are inclined to overstimulate our nervous systems is to avoid the dreads of abstract thought. He wrote this in relation to transfinite math and the headaches we might get from thinking about it, being equally lured by its abstraction and beauty- a line of thought not entirely foreign to music.
In mathematics, a nowhere dense set is, simply put, a topological concept, in which no matter how much you zoom into a given structure, an infinite number of gaps reveal infinite porosity; but this record isn’t necessarily what some might call “mathematical” music. Rather, the listener is invited to imagine different modes of permeability, on levels of form, content, or otherwise, in which any structure might collapse into another, reiterate itself in a contrasting way or erode into scattered particles, giving way to a fractured soundscape from intimate, crystalline textures to expressive, noisy outbursts.
The music of nowhere dense was conceived attempting to approach several dilemmas and notions: writing for a diverse ensemble consisting of acoustic and electronic instruments, especially ones that for the most part defy conventional forms of notation; balancing free improvisation with densely composed sections; negotiating repetition and development within form; ultimately, crafting a hybrid body of sound for each musician to bring out their own idiosyncratic way of transforming the predetermined material, and in that sense remain faithful to a still jazz-oriented approach.
