London-based composer and producer Balthazar Mattar enthralls with an atmospheric digital sound on debut solo album, Fingerprints. Themes of isolation and id are explored artfully inside creative digital soundscapes that vary from effervescent to haunting. From the otherworldly opener “Starry Stripy Desires” to the ethereal “Whisper a Love Track,” Mattar blends textured synths, fragmented vocals, and introspective moods right into a compelling portrait of existence in a digitally fractured world.
“Starry Stripy Desires” kicks the album into gear with a spacey intrigue, as twinkling synths meld with regular rhythmic pulses and a deep vocal emergence. Bass-y ruminations compel on the two-minute flip; the bubbling synth radiance continues, although now with an eerier vocal disposition and bass-touched ardor exudes a extra haunting high quality. The monitor’s woozy, otherworldly manufacturing shortly showcases a sound steeped in deep atmospheric enchantment, stirringly evident all through the album.
The following “Forgotten Names” additionally achieves a consuming stability of hazy key-laden glimmering and nocturnal digital aptitude — particularly in sporadic synth buzzing and bouncy percussive components, invoking a late-night industrial grip. In the meantime, “I Hear the Cows in Heaven” embraces a lusher entrancement in its weaving of spoken-word vocal sensations with synth work that ranges from dreamily engaging to ascending depth, the latter of which resembles the audible accompaniment to a whirring, neon-lit carousel.
A riveting standout, “Whisper a Love Track” reminds fondly of Susumu Yokota in its pulsating synth ethereality and mellow piano-tinged undercurrent. The “sing a lullaby” vocal attract strikes seamlessly from spacious blissfulness into pit-pattering rhythmic envelopments, after which a spine-tingling, multi-layered vocal chorus because the monitor’s mid-point approaches. “Drive Horizon” comes subsequent, additionally straddling enchanting lullaby and outer-space foreboding in its mix of glistening synths and chilly vocal momentum.
One other memorable manufacturing, “Irogenous” unveils a darkly intoxicating spell in its vocal maneuvering from conversational stream-of-conscious emotions to ominous “solar is burning” croons; the accompanying synths resemble one thing match for autumn’s peak, as useless leaves litter the bottom, whereas stutter-y backing results bolster with a uniquely infectious appeal. Amongst the album’s briskest efforts arrives subsequent in “Pop Pop,” the place clamoring synths and rhythmic reflections enchantment instantly. A lyrical reference to “the crushing sense of nothing” alludes to existentialist thought when pondering one’s existence; the monitor achieves in each a thematic and atmospheric maintain.
Album finale “Paper Aeroplanes” emits a dreamy, reflective high quality with a symphonic-like fluttering in its fantasy-like conclusion — the place chiming piano and prospers of strings mix with lingering class. The previous journey, from subdued piano to bursting ambient persona, totally engages as properly. Filled with immersive soundscapes and moody structural developments, Fingerprints is a completely memorable success from Balthazar Mattar.