Willscher

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A quick note on the "official release" of one of experimental electronica's most exciting debuts of recent years. The Solutiore of Stareau set was an astonishingly accomplished piece of music, spread over 3CDRs, immediately rocketing composer/producer Nicholas Willscher Zammuto into the upper echelons of contemporary electronic music. The only real mystery was why a label hadn't snapped him up, so it was no surprise that New York's apartmentb announced this first release under the name Zammuto. Comprising remastered pieces from the supreme "glitch"-based third SoS CD, I've described his sound as best I could in my previous review, so I'll simply add that this is truly thrilling new music, effortlessly escaping the über-clinical reductio ad absurdium that much glitch ends up in. And now we know a little more about the talented Mr. Zammuto, I'll simply post a few choice quotes from the press release. Originally producing "sound-reliant sculpture and installation work", his focus on the physical nature of sound in electronic production would seem to be responsible for much of the warmth in his music. Most of the sounds here actually originate from guitars, but Zammuto describes how "most every sound (is) passed through something 'warm', like a microphone or a tube preamp, or some amount of air ... This is a recording-based music rather than a synthesis-based music. The line between real-time performance and software sequencing is blurred, resulting in a distinctly warm and organic flow." Zammuto's background is in art conservation, though with degrees in both chemistry and studio art, he's clearly a real thinker about the process, which perhaps begins to explain how his beautifully abstract music is also so approachable. "I'm interested," he explains, "in making music that on its surface suggests something familiar but upon closer listening reverses superficial assumptions.I'm attracted to the most idiosyncratic details of sound." Having recently moved to a New York art fellowship from rural western Massachusetts , Zammuto reports that he's enjoying the "big dirty city" and encouragingly, that he's producing lots of new work. It'll be interesting to see how his sound incorporates the radically different environmental influences, and also how his interest in live performance manifests itself - I, for one, can't wait to hear what Mr. Zammuto does next.