An artist shrouded in mystery, MDN (we/they/them) is well versed in composing, designing and educating, and the Brooklyn, New York resident births music and visuals via live coding that’s highly experimental across this superbly interesting and memorable affair.
The listen is divided into a pair of lengthy pieces. “x-rays” occupies the first 15 minutes and immediately leads with a mysterious droning. The track finds a very abstractly meditative place to reside, where the mesmerizing, calming sound manipulation takes on sci-fi qualities, but always remains soothing in its own unique realm. Near the end of the track, the climate picks up a bit with a cosmic quality that’s hypnotic in a more upbeat demeanor which embraces the sounds of bells, keys and glitchy bouts, too.
The last 14 minutes is taken up by the brighter tones of the radiant “time_dilation.” The setting takes on a vintage quality of bleeping tonality that could soundtrack a remake of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (especially when they communicate with the aliens through musical patterns), and the strategic hissing and static present certainly lends itself to the nostalgic feeling of a retro radio losing its signal with a distant being amid the stars.
MDN thematically surrounds near death experiences during childhood, and it comes with the hypothesis that “all beings are singularity material.” This premise is used along with Orca, OP-1 and Hydra video synth that’s employed over a pair of live code sessions which seem like they could be the musical equivalent of a trip to black hole.
Interestingly enough, the packaging (and it’s available physically only as a cassette), contains information about the project alongside coding script, which enhances the sonically engaging experience that’s experimental, ambient, psychedelic and spacey in its own inimitable vision.
