Ebauche Formic SyntaxSUP002: Vinyl / CD / Digital
Preview
Released: 19th April 2019
Format: Vinyl, CD, Digital
Written and produced by Ebauche (Alex Leonard)
Original oil painting by Adrianna Snochowska
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios
Description
Formic Syntax is the newest LP created by Ebauche, aka Alex Leonard, which veers halfway between ambient and densely intricate beats. Having recently relocated to Berlin, this album draws on the myriad of artistic and musical inspiration overflowing in this city.
Originally released in mid-2018 as a limited edition cassette on Cosmic Winnetou, the album is now being given a full release on vinyl, CD and digital distribution by Supple 9.
The tracks on Formic Syntax have a distinctly harder edge than recent releases by Ebauche and much of the album is pulsating with angular sonics and crisp, sharp polyrhythms. As always, Ebauche has found ways to densely layer the audio spectrum with constantly varying electronics, whilst maintaining clarity and purpose.
Behind Closed Eyes aptly opens the album with subtle melodic pads, underlying bass drones, fractured field recordings topped off with alien distorted crackles. A Bipolar Retraction draws you out of ambience and into utterly hypnotic chaos. Unmeshing Cinematic Realism fragments things even more, just held together by driving beat, and Alcovic Arch reins you back in with a more palatable yet beat driven structure. The album then eases back and into two slow and languid pieces which hark back to Ebauche's earlier ambient releases whilst maintaining a beautiful attention to detail and sculpting of sound. The nine minute closing piece is effervescent, washing over the listener with waves of shimmering serenity.
The whole package is complemented by stunning cover art, itself a remix of a unique painting created specially for the release by Polish artist Adrianna Snochowska. The original is a 70 x 60 cm oil painting on canvas, and a print of the artwork is included with each vinyl copy.
Currently based in Berlin, Germany, Alex Leonard's last release as Ebauche was in 2018, titled Mutable, was honoured by Headphone Commute in his end of year lists and chosen as #10 Album of the year by A Closer Listen: "The gradual shifts in the compositions have a transforming effect on the listener: you start off in one place and end up somewhere else altogether. Then you go back to experience Mutable all over again."
Press
Ebauche does something different on Formic Syntax, offering an album that is in part more aggressive and in part more sedate than Mutable: part industrial and part ambient. And it works.
In this paradoxical environment, where the whole of life flourishes over eons and individual life randomly ends in the surprise of a second, Formic Syntax is the soundtrack. Beautiful ambient density, sonic pressure measured precisely, consciousnesses balanced in some ethereal buoyancy.
About Ebauche
Ebauche is the pseudonym for Alex Leonard, an Irish electronic music producer currently based in Berlin, Germany. He is known for creating a wide array of textured electronic sounds, from serene ambient to chaotic, densely-layered IDM.
Ebauche has been featured by John Kelly on RTE Radio 2's "Mystery Train", and has played live shows and festivals alongside notables such as Rafael Anton Irisarri, Christoph Berg, Biosphere, Gregorz Bojanek, Harald Grosskopf, Frog Pocket, Ambulance, Sunken Foal, Hrvatski, and Lakker.
"Ebauche" comes from a French word meaning "to rough hew, sketch", and is also a term in horology (watch making), meaning "an incomplete watch movement consisting of plates, bridges, wheels, and barrels". This name ties to Ebauche's musical output, which frequently consists of ambient compositions which subconsciously play at variants of 60 bpm to calm and relax the listener.
Similarly "rough hew, sketch" hints at Ebauche's darker electronic side: rough and mangled beats competing with sublime layers of noise, distortion, and subtle melodies.