Among other instruments, Thomas Garcia Station uses a hang drum on the album »Moon Phase Gardening«. The name and especially this instrument suggest New Age and psychedelic music, but the opener »Spirals« quickly dispels such esoteric notions and delivers concentrated, highly rhythmic loop techno. The Colombian has carefully stitched together every four-four beat. During the first lockdown, he was forced to choose a Lisbon flat as his production site, where he experimented with a computer, the aforementioned hang drum and microphones. The tracks on ISOR29, which draw their power from their meditative length, their tidiness and their immaculate beauty, resemble those of Susumu Yokota’s project Ebi. Moderate tempo, no sonic assaults and ethereal synths that evoke the tribal and mysterious in equal measure. »Genesis«, the second track on the mini-album and the shortest at just under seven minutes, thrives on the contrast between booming, bass-heavy drumming and conspiratorial melodies that transport even further away from the voice samples. »Mi Vida« also takes its time with the use of percussion and builds on a scenic introduction with vocals and a sequence of sounds circling around the shaman’s fire. The hang drum, which may put off listeners who are sceptical about hippie-esque music, remains agreeably in the background throughout the record and is only used in homeopathic and therefore acceptable doses.
Moon Phase Gardening
