Delighting in its modular synth textures, escalating rhythms, and gradual shifts in intensity, Latticework is the debut album from Voix Nulle, the project of Sydney-based composer Brendon Warner. The release reflects his move from guitar-driven post-rock (he was the former guitarist for post-rock outfit We Lost The Sea) toward hardware synthesis and analog processing. Its conceptual foundations draw in part from surrealist literature and the architecture of Sydney’s inner west.
Exemplary of Warner’s talent for both striking soundscapes and climactic structural developments, “Signing Secrets with the Moon” opens the album with captivating allure. An initial warming haziness emanates across the first minute, simmering into an industrial-like synth buzzing and thumps of percussion. The effervescent electronics, buzzy synth elements, and rhythmic movements converge wonderfully here, expanding to greater effervescent intensity across the track’s second half. Ensuing track “No Aware” unveils a more spacious prowess, where pulsating synth minimalism swells with ceaseless intensity to a brighter, expressive culmination.
Elsewhere, “Neon Storm” showcases a dreamy, hypnotic caressing, furthering a knack for second-half vigor as shimmers of electronics ascend and then descend into a lulling finale. The fantastic “Childlike Empress” feels fit for a late-night escapade, with neon-lit synths charging forth into vibrant movements and a ceaseless feeling of background illumination. An absorbing atmosphere is also apparent on album finale “Hold on, Tengo,” with its glimmering organ-like qualities invoking the intriguing, wintry works of Boards of Canada. Latticework is an excellent, wholly immersive output from Voix Nulle.
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“Childlike Empress” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
