Simon J Karis 'Piovve' CASSETTE/DIGITAL

Simon J Karis returns to Nice Music with Piovve, his first release for the label since 2017’s Madrugada. Following from recent releases for Altered States and Vienna Press, Piovve offers up six tracks demonstrating the development and deepening of Karis’ obliquely emotive approach to electronic murk. Floating on clouds of tape hiss in smeared VHS fidelity, Karis explores a range of formal approaches, from the burbling monophonic synth lines and spoken text of opener ‘Infinite July’ to the four-on-the-floor kickdrum and wistful music-box melodies of half-remembered rave closer ‘Shale Pardon’. In between we’re treated to the drumless motorik propulsion of ‘To Think of You’, which calls to mind Moebius and Beerbohm’s Double Cut in its woozy rhythmic insistence before the mood is hijacked by a distorted devotional vocal sample that abruptly reroutes proceedings from the morose to the ecstatic. The opposite path is travelled in ‘On Ardour’ where jittering synth pads toy with euphoria before descending into pensive gloom. Across these six miniatures – each of which concludes with an abrupt cut to silence – Karis mines a vein where sonic experimentation and emotional reflection meet, crafting something uneasy but ultimately celebratory.

-Francis Plagne

For fans of Cluster, Actress