Swirlings

The full scope of his wide-ranging experiments in synthesis and electronic arrangement encompasses everything from expansive new age drift exercises, to purely textural noise sculpting, to the strain of post-Berlin School cybernetic prog composition that characterized newer albums like Through The Portal (Phinery, 2016) and Digital Rainforest (Beer on the Rug, 2015). Swirlings, his frst full-length LP on Hausu Mountain, follows a split release with Brett Naucke (HAUSMO53, 2017), and albums on labels like Immune, NNA, and Constellation Tatsu. Swirlings fnds Pulse Emitter tempering his more recent melodic streak with a host of time-distorting compositional strategies from the ambient and drone traditions, yielding a hybridized vision of his music that spans distinct eras and styles of his output. Taken in the context of his cosmic song titles and long-standing incorporation of sci-f themes and imagery, the album bears the outward signs of the ambient record that seeks to evoke the experience of deep space travel, or observing a lush garden of alien fora from the deck of a starship. Groetsch orna- ments his gorgeous harmonic whirlpools and majestic spreads of smeared drones with layers of crystalline melody and fourishes of granular processing. His pieces stretch through minimal expans- es in which individual pads and bass notes sketch out a churning rhythmic grid before blooming into mosaics of interlaced arpeggios and lead voices. Pulse Emitter approaches electronic composition from the perspective of a master craftsman, harnessing a fne-tuned sense of narrative development and a penchant for juxtaposing contrasting synth voices from far-fung corners of his arsenal of softsynths, app-based programs, and hardware instruments. While he conjures time-lapse vistas of galaxies and nebulas in our mind's eye, the sophistication of his arrangements and the universal beauty of his harmonies pushes the lens inward on the self, result- ing in a journey that is as personal and internal as it is celestial. Doug & Max HausuMountain @gmail. Com 847-220-1755 Artist: Pulse Emitter Album: Swirlings Label: Hausu Mountain LPx above / LP below Cat#: HAUSMO92 Formats: LPx (colored), LP (black) Release Date: 01/17/20 (click album art to stream) Portland-based composer Daryl Groetsch's output under the name Pulse Emitter forms a catalog of nearly one hundred physical releases since the early '00s. Swirlings represents a culmination of diverse modes of creation that Pulse Emitter has developed over the course of his recent releases. As on 2018's Xenharmonic Passages, Groetsch moves beyond traditional tonalities and western scales to incorporate elements of microtonality into his percolating black hole soundscapes. As on his fve volume series called Meditative Music, he hones in on 6 to 7-minute drifting pieces that balance a sense of delicate stasis with great depth of detail and movement. The lead lines present on Swirlings continue Pulse Emitter's fascination with emulated A1) Electron CentralA2) Fairy TreeA3) Space FrostB1) RipplesB2) Cloud RefugeB3) Empty Hold