Ryonkt is the alias for Japanese artist Ryo Nakata’s guitar-drone project. On his fifth album, Troposphere, Ryonkt seems to leave behind the field recordings and gentle melodies and articulations of his previous releases and focus instead on the construction of thick slabs of pulsing, static texture, a subtler approach that makes this release a more demanding listen than one might initially expect.
There is no recognisable melodic phrasing across the album. The feeling of melody is still present, however through electronic manipulation what might have started out as melody has been transformed into droning meta-structures whose subtle changes and colourations require focused and attentive listening. While the album credits the use of guitar as the source of the sound on display here, in reality there is nothing particularly reminiscent of an electric guitar in the sound of the album. The expected sharp attacks of pitches have been stretched, distorting the timbre and expanding the one-dimensional texture of the electric guitar into a rounded sea of clouded frequencies, sounding surprisingly akin to the synth pads of an early Tangerine Dream recording. Subtle, repetitive pulses push the sound forward, with each layer of sound clearly audible so that the listener can flick their attention between different aspects of the wall of sound at will. The recordings never seem to get messy or unfocused however, there is a definite sense of structure on this album, it’s just that the structure is rather homogenous.
Overall, this album is static drone at its most uncompromising, and the value the listener will derive from the release is entirely dependent on how much interest they have in seeking out the subtle sound shapes that gradually form across these colourful and uplifting slabs of texture. For the listener that is seeking out some ethereal, spaced out drone, Troposphere will satisfy.
Sam Gillies
