More than two years after the release of "
Impressões de Outra Ilha", Discrepant's head honcho returns home under his birth name with the appropriately titled "Exotic Immensity". Conjured from the seeds of an exhibition of dioramas at Le Bon Accueil in Rennes, this double LP feels quietly epic in scope, a sprawling travelogue through imagined scenarios and what if possibilities.
Discarding the more rough around the edges collages of previous works under a myriad of aliases—Discogs it, if you will —, Cardoso's approach here is more meticulously composed, with seamless transitions within his own personal soundworld giving way to this hallucinated landscape of field recordings, subtle electronic tweaks, cascading patterns, queasy ambiences and kösmiche-like synth harmonies.
Perfectly embodied in Evan Crankshaw's cut up poem, filled with occult and sci-fi references such as Agrippa's Book of the Occult, William Blake's Book of Urizen, Dr. Moreau or 50's pop-science books, the music on "Exotic Immensity" transverses time and cartography in a deeply personal matter, from the cricket-like textures and reverse loops of "Réplica(s)" until the closing moments with the touching chord progression and mangled voices of "Pó Nuno". In-between, the foghorn meets bass clarinet melody of "Ossos" recalls the unassuming but essential harmonic patterns of Laurence Crane, surrounded by an almost percussive sheet of field recordings that drift into the gliding synth tones of "Desumanização (I & II)" until tape orchestral swells carry us into the aether. "Aquário Novo Mundo" brims in an undisplaced cartography, from electronic marimba stabs to synth choirs, the call of the loom to labyrinthine keyboard harmonies and underwater radiance. Are we still here? Somewhere? The muffled looped rhythmic sequence of "Imagem Miragem", cut by the glow of cascading synths doesn't offer a reply. Nor does it need to.
Gonçalo F. Cardoso runs the label
Discrepant, founded in London in 2011, with the aim to deconstruct, distort and re-assemble the lore of (un)popular music around the world, as well as its sub-labels Sucata Tapes, Farsa Discos and Souk Records. He also releases music under the Papillon moniker as well as Gonzo.
See also
Lagoss (Gonçalo F. Cardoso, Mladen Kurajica & Daniel García).
