losing circles

marcia bassett & thomas dimuzio

yew records

2021 LP

reviews

“The duo’s energy and enthusiasm for new discoveries is undimmed and Losing Circles just pushes things way beyond. The future is limitless, but here is just a little glimpse.” —Freq

“A collective imagination held in sound abstraction slowly unfurls in a low-end bloom of steady gradual alteration...” —Yew press release

Freq

As a child, I had an image of how the future was going to look and I have to confess that forty-odd years later, I am pretty disappointed. Everything seems to be smaller, more compact, less shiny and interesting and space is almost ignored.

The sounds on Losing Circles that Thomas Dimuzio and partner in sound, Double Leopards‘ Marcia Bassett, conjure up are exactly how I imagined life would sound four decades or so on from my childhood: expansive, sweeping, mysterious and otherworldly.

Drawing on their vast experience with the Buchla synthesisers, the modular technology of which alone look like something that Isaac Asimov may have imagined, they keep that fevered dream of a wild future alive. The whirrs and clanks and distant chatter, the sensation of distance, of mind-numbing, unimaginable distance, vast machines undertaking impenetrable tasks; it is all wrapped up in these curious conveyances of the ear.

The drones impact upon you, setting a scene of a new reality, an unfamiliarity completely removed from what you might expect when you put the stylus on a record. The two players’ ideas merge into one sonic exploration, but with the juxtaposition of ideas and sounds as they react to one another. It stays well out of the everyday; the random glitched and steamy sighs, the simmering buzz and vocal echoes acting as memories of what a human voice may have sounded like in a distant past.
The sense of constant movement is unrelenting, though often unseen; we can only guess at what is taking place, a sense of mystery and wonder that is hard to convey with any other sort of instrumentation. There are a myriad of possibilities all seen through this distant, alien prism. The rush of water or the flow of passing detritus means we could be anywhere, with the saturation of some of the effects almost overwhelming.

The constant drone is the thing that ties the whole sprawling vision together but odd sounds do stick out; a brief memory of a clockwork toy dancing or the buzz of static that holds you in place. It is when the space around the sounds becomes clearer that it becomes easier to appreciate the clarity and precision that the duo manage to maintain with everything in its place yet seemingly wide open to external pressure.

Flipping the record over changes the mood and pushes the listener way back. As it opens, this could be an attempt to soundtrack the big bang; the streak of heat and noise erupting outwards blasting past and unknown speeds, clusters of rock convening and the formation of stars beginning as the view opens at the speed of light. The wavelengths produced pass through these elements until they are raining down through our recently formed atmosphere.

Disembodied voices draw the listener to the current times, but it could be any time since the birth of humanity. Eventually, things open out and the drone is happy to surround us without relief as squeals and grunts work hard attempting new forms of communication completely outside any sense of familiarity. As it draws to a calming conclusion, I imagined it soundtracking a new take on the opening to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but pushing further and further into the distance.

The duo’s energy and enthusiasm for new discoveries is undimmed and Losing Circles just pushes things way beyond. The future is limitless, but here is just a little glimpse. Pressed in an edition of 200, with a glorious op-art sleeve by Peter Greening, you need to snap these up quick. —Mr Olivetti

Yew Records Press Release

Marcia Bassett and Thomas Dimuzio create a mind-bending synthesis of sound and place on their debut LP Losing Circles. Get ready for a head trip, the album is a sublime manifestation of sound interference, texture, and ultra, low-end synth waves that literally penetrate the listener's body. The pair bonded over their Buchla systems, first meeting at Thomas's radio show, Frequency Modulation Radio at KFPA, Berkeley, California where they had their initial improv jam. Their second meeting, documented here on, Losing Circles, was recorded at the historical revival style Williamsburg Library. While the classic Buchla sound is identifiable on the recordings, it does not define the recordings. Shortwave voices appear and disrupt, lose themselves in the multiplicity of patterns, random frequencies erupt into a whirlwind of frenzied staccato scratches dissipating into fragmentary dimensions. At one sublime peak a distant cacophony of sirens awaken the senses to place -- the sound meshes into the electronics as the music takes the cue into a more foreboding tone. Conscious and unconscious meet bearing an asymmetric modulation of movement. A collective imagination held in sound abstraction slowly unfurls in a low-end bloom of steady gradual alteration, a vast deep cavernous drone of subtle control. The added bonus is the stunning trance inducing op-art by Pete Greening on the cover that will have listeners Losing Circles! Edition of 200.