Yair Etziony welds wispy electronic textures, soft percussive samples and plangent organic fragments into an accessible, though still idiosyncratic, whole on his first full-length for the Japanese electronica label, Spekk.
An intuitive subtlety informs these works. All of the elements are carefully assimilated into a fluid, often florid style that remains steady throughout. Etziony’s sense of rhythm is sensitive and pointillistic. Without becoming tawdry, Etziony then adds a solid harmonic grounding, and a melodic thrust that is often dynamic and determined, and occasionally brash and rough.
In fact, the work becomes more unsettled and challenging by the minute. Where Etziony once teased and folded lines and shapes gently around each other with grace, managing a water color delicacy and emotional poise from long tones and phosphorescent, atmospheric touches, he gradually overrides with writing basslines, spare, architectural percussion, and chilled chromium drones. Without ever losing its immediacy, a tentative, exploratory quality comes to tinge the proceedings, a shivering, somber-hued fragility that holds a luminous appeal.
Max Schaefer
