Nathan Moody & HHNOI | Future Rituals
Modularfield (CS/DL)
An exciting tape split has just surfaced by California sound artist/designer Nathan Moody (whose recent Heliopause we loved) and German ambient sound-shaper HHNOI (Marco Petracca) for which this serves as an introduction to his work. Moody’s work covers side one, a bubbly soft minimal synth faces-off with a low-end string-like chord, and the piece Sonnenaufgang starts to evolve. In a mesmerizing, undulating forward-thinking progression of chords and atmosphere this is a meticulous mind meld of an opener.
With little break comes Vergessen, which continues the amelioration with a deeper moodiness, even. It’s as though we’ve stepped into a darkened hashish den of mirage and fog. The record refers to magic, powers beyond the everyday, and this track is a very modern interpretation of so-called ‘ritual music’. Strings and things illuminate the track with something that alludes to Indonesian and Middle Eastern adjacent themes. Abgereist is a sweet balance between a warm minimal techno and catching up with spirits that have flown. Moody does not shy away from a shadier side of ambient here, featured prominently on his closer, Geschluckt. The piece seems to float, and fall, like a living-breathing organism – filling the room with an aura of cleansing, of moving on from the past, into the light.
By comparison, once flipped Petracca’s setting is styled by a very futuristic sensibility that is the other side of this planet on state of no union. The synths flare and flood the space with an ominous atmosphere. It’s gentle and abridged, glistening and rumbly. This rush continues right into long, which has this nuanced scaling rhythm. The moderate development here, and into staring at the shoulder of silence gives off a compelling energy that is wistful and dank. Isolated ripples of melancholic vibrations linger, and fall away, regenerating on contact. The bass is real low, the simple chords adding an almost ghostly, childlike quality. HHNOI closes with entangled but loose, a bit of an ambient drifter, with the occasional buzzing effect. The end result is graceful, spacious and elusive.
