J SHADOW’S HYPERFOLD
TRACK BY TRACK
London based elctronic producer J Shadow has returned with a new work: HYPERFOLD.
The artists connects his sonic explorations with astrophysics, digging deep into Carl Sagan’s studies. He develops the idea that we move along multiple dimensions, that cross each other, fold and loop and yet we are not able to fully perceive. This concept is depicted by a mosaic of high-speed angular rhythms, that recall the disruptive bass potency of Mumdance, layered on a canvas of atmospheric spatial arcs reminiscent of Bruce’s weightless sound design.
J Shadow takes us step by step into the making of this release.
Get ready to travel through the depths of the universe.
And Our lives were just a holograph
If time is a linear dimension experienced frame by frame, the notion of accessing any point across the timeline implies that everything in the universe has already happened. In its first depiction, the holograph is a metaphor for the manuscript of our lives; we become the experiencers of all events pre-written, like a script from a show. The lights fade, the audience applaud; dazzled by the display there is no awareness that the mise-en-scène is entirely fictitious. With its second depiction, a hologram, the artificial stage of reality is merely an illusory projection perceived through the lens of the observer.
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And Our Lives Were Just An Holograph
Death Of The Multiverse
Formerly ‘Cosmortality’ – a neologism inspired by track titles from Norma Jean’s ‘O’ God, The Aftermath’. Cosmic-mortality is explicit for the death of the multiverse. The hypothesis of ‘the big crunch’ describes the eventual stalling expansion of the universe. All matter eventually collapses into itself and is pulled back to the point of singularity, preceding another ‘big bang’. The cyclical series of bangs and crunches form an endless cycle in which we lose track of beginning and end. Exemplifying this effect is the ‘Shepard-Risset Glissando’ – a seemingly-infinite rising pitch reminiscent of a spaceship taking off, the guiding principle of which conceptualises a continual, never-ending loop. Distorted sound bites of Michio Kaku are scattered across its length, a theoretician who describes multiple theories of the end of the multiverse detailed in his book ‘Parallel Worlds’.
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Death of The Multiverse
Exosphere
A less macabre venture than the former track, ‘Exosphere’ is an up-in-the-air dunk of alien bass, crashes, and breaks. A wrap of wind rush and euphoria is the focus in creating a high-octane sweep and turbulent stutter across the upper atmosphere. The innovation of flight has presented as a recurring fantasy to the imagination of humankind. As once romanticised by our not-so-distant ancestors, this experience will become replicated, simulated and readily commercialised in the not-so-distant future.
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Exosphere
Mist Over Sequoia
Envisioning passages across western America, this production intends to encapsulate the sense of journey and discovery. The syncopation between percussive aspects and bass stabs is exerted to create a spill of rolling momentum, like that of a forward expedition. With breaks aligned to double speed, these layers are designed to cement an impactful addition in tailing off the latter segment of the production. To consolidate this energy, twenty additional bpm were thrown in to its former self.
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Mist Over Sequoia
Ion Drive
By taking a straight line and folding the ends together into a circle, a uni-dimensional plane has curved into a two-dimensional loop. As an extension of the previous release ‘ The Astral Series’, references of interstellar travel are reframed for this current work. The hyperfold analogy portrays the folding of a dimension into itself, thereby creating a continuum. ‘Ion Drive’ is the propulsion into the unknown, an explorative endeavour accelerating in towards the deepest voids. It comes with absolute pleasure that the press is stamped alongside an interpretative assault from the mighty Gremlinz.
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