byetone - death of a typographer

on the turntable:

byetone
death of a typographer
raster-noton / r-n092

image:japanese forms

Back again following a rather long hiatus, due to me relocating (again), one2zero will be trying hard to make up for lost time with some posts on a more regular basis. First up is the excellent release from Byetone -Death of A Typographer. Also, thanks to my good friend Chris for letting me discover a whole host of exciting new sounds over the past few months. (one2zero)

buy: raster-noton

website: raster-noton


,death of a typographer’ is meant to be a snap shot. the release was recorded in a winter week in berlin. only the pre-released single ,plastic star’ was created in sunny athens. the album contains the original session version of ,plastic star’.

the music of ,death of a typographer’ carries the special sound of raster-noton - but it is different: the tracks act as focal points, as elegy of an latently flowing stream, a stream that still moves on even when the music has long faded away. the tracks do not necessarily move forward, they rather open up a dark abyss which seems deepest in ,capture this I’ and II. byetone manages to achieve a remarkable metamorphosis of the organic, the tracks don't reveal any of the elements of conventional composition techniques but somehow they seem to show through the static sound body. with ,heart’ byetone finishes the album in a very dark manner. isn't there any hope? not in berlin winter.

,death of a typographer’ poses us riddles, even the title reminds of peter greenaway's ,the draughsman's contract’. for the vigilant spectator the ambiguous artwork will reveal the ,death of a typographer’. (© raster-noton)