Gonzalez & Reinhardt by Gonzalez & Reinhardt

Memo from the desk of Jonas Reinhardt:

‘’The collaboration with Diego Gonzalez began over an extended meal at Le Garage in Sausalito. Discussing the use of Tambura in Uzbek folk art tradition, I suggested synthesizers would be a unique counterpart. He proposed we establish a sonic bridge between the two and draw from the results. The first experiment in this vein was ‘Pater Breugel’. In this piece, we melded the metallic resonance of the tamboura with the electric timbral equivalent of the synthesizer to intended affect. While an encouraging start, it was actually during the recording and mixing process that we discovered a phenomenon arguably more compelling.

After ‘Pater’, we devised a system of layered pulses and drones to achieve what we playfully came to know as ‘The Throb’. Unlocked, the transportive nature of The Throb became the focus for the remaining set of recordings. What the listener finds is that, far from being emotionally obstructed by multiple resonant bass frequencies, The Throb acts as a catalyst and psycho-acoustic trigger for primal notions of warmth, becoming, and timelessness. From here we reasoned that, aside from the obvious connection to the human heartbeat, there must also exist associations to water-borne life, amniotic fluids, and of course, the motion of celestial bodies.

Continuing the experiment, we employed varied sequential emphases with respect to melody, arrangement, and song structure. The desired consequence was an unimpeded connection to The Throb. In ‘Atlantic Schism’, listen carefully at 00:02:40 to a particularly vivid instance of pulsed coupling. In establishing the transmission of the work, choices had to be made about how to apply the necessary unction. The beginning and end of a piece like ‘Whack Mottle Orchestra’ serves as a good illustration of this. Temporal markers here function as vehicles to move the listener from The Throb, out to aquarian anticipation, and then back to telluric satiation.

You’ll likely find the apex of our infrasonic endeavor expressed in ‘Scraping Maw’. Again, by emphasizing temporal moments where a pulse and a drone are dominant, we present the listener the most direct ingress to The Throb. Interestingly we discovered that, while optimizing communication between bass and synthesizer elements to normalize the program cadence, ‘Pt. 2’ is best deployed at the beginning of a listener’s journey.

Finally, with ‘The Self Corridors’, we are drawn inward. Here, The Throb is no longer something that extends outward towards an unknowable but rather directs us to examine forms from which we are composed. Nutrient-rich fluids and sundry corporeal material are evoked. For example, in the lofty tilt of the glissando bass at 00:02:22, or at 00:00:50, when the nimble liquidity of the synthesizer is most apparent. Indeed it was our intention that these flesh and divinity metaphors combine via auditory conveyance. Here, we offer listeners some evidence and invite you to explore at will.’

- Jonas Reinhardt
December 15th, 2017