SPHERES by SPLIT Music

Spheres is the first in a series of “documents” by Research, which intends to unite a diverse selection of artists around a common theme. The inspiration for this initial document comes from artist and mathematician Timothy Cresswell, whose carving of spheres covered in mathematical figures – a holistic, meditative process he refers to as “tuning” – has taken place for over fifty years and has inspired the art direction of his son Daniel.

The leadoff track “Radon” from These Hidden Hands – the production duo of Tommy Four Seven and Alain Paul – does so with a red-toothed yet synthetic menace and with percussive patterns like an artillery barrage. Mondkopf then dials back the aggression somewhat for his piece “The Runaway,” yet keeps the sense of transformative tension running high with sculpted static, nervous Geiger counter ticking and majestic layered synths. SNTS closes out the A-side with the appropriately named “Dunkelheit,” a slow and steady audio journey – complete with dramatic pauses – through black rains and monolithic structures used for ritualistic purposes. The B-side opens with Oake’s “Blemmyae,” a slowly unfurling mass of audio fog whose hypnotically austere rhythm track – almost entirely composed from a single martial snare hit and a punishing digital bass drum – is used as bait to lure listeners into a force field of precisely interwoven drones and doppler-effect mayhem. Headless Horseman sustains this atmosphere with a club track for an alien homeworld: a dense mixture of shuddering / shattering percussion, imperious synth swells and crackling bursts of raw electricity. Grebenstein’s “Meet My Needs” delivers the final statement for this particular document, utilizing carefully segmented white noise and synthesized pulmonary sound as the basis for an ascension to uncharted mental realms.