LUME
Oeseph
Self-produced
Imaginary landscapes, dreamscapes and stories made with tones and repetition. Electronic pulses, microwave antenna hums, the whine of cathode ray tubes, the buzz and ring of a telephone, the blips and beeps of video games and home computers; all this is part of our daily lives. Yet we are barely aware of it, taking technology for granted. There are those in the last century or so who have harnessed the everyday, have coaxed beauty and light out of tones, out of the machines we take for granted.
The sounds heard on Lume are equal parts soothing and startling. Taking his cue from all things Warp, Oeseph’s music is designed to open up parts of your mind, provoking thoughts, sparking creativity and action. Subtle Start mixes tentative minor tones with recordings of burbling water, followed by Clear Shift, which starts out hesitantly then jumps into scattershot percussion and syrupy bass. Glaseum recalls the lucid dreams heard on Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 2 with the dense swirling miasma of a fever dream. Worm Pad’s subliminal keyboards build almost imperceptibly causing you to lean closer to the speakers and consciously listen to the interplay of tones and sighs. On A Clear Day's whimsical keyboards play with angular noises, chopped up voices and the sounds of a train on tracks, suggesting a hazy daydream of TV and playing with toys. The nostalgic Swanage follows with a bell-like keyboard pattern, fighter-planes diving overhead and persistent violins coming together and in the end crashing into a digital nightmare. The music on Lume suggests memories old and imagined, of daydreams and happy thoughts, of what ifs and maybes. If you are interested in the music of Oesoph, contact Preston Thomas at oesoph@cs.com.