Ken Karter is a new addition to the Stroboscopic Artefacts label, and one who is wasting no time in proving that he belongs on that label’s talented roster. With a personal ethos based on the reconciliation of esoteric and scientific aims, it is clear that his music hopes to avoid the blind alley of “either / or” binary thinking and instead strives for a fascinating journey into “both / and” experimental fusion. The label’s Monad series, already populated with producers who set their sights on similar artistic goals, provides a very fertile soil indeed for Karter’s integrationist worldview and intense sounds.
Ken Karter’s breakout release for Stroboscopic Artefacts is Monad XXI, and this in itself is a kind of happy coincidence: this is very much the sound of the 21st century, full of anticipatory tension and darkness, but also a great deal of rushing excitement related to new discoveries. Altogether, these pieces have an effect not unlike navigating through Tokyo on a rainy night: a profound feeling of natural and chaotic processes finding a way to reassert themselves within even the most well-choregraphed technological drama. Each track achieves this special sensation in its own way, with the leadoff MX-01.11 preferring ritually slow kick patterns and an ephemeral scaffolding of dust particles and other ‘micro’ sonic... more