JONATHAN FITOUSSI Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Generations of modular might fold in on themselves as legendary Buchla pioneer Suzanne Ciani patches into accomplished French synthesist Jonathan Fitoussi for this outstanding album on Obliques. The title is clearly a tribute to Morton Subotnick, whose own Silver Apples Of The Moon is a true ground zero for West Coast synth albums and as you might surmise Ciani and Fitoussi opt to create something more shapely and inviting than the wild, brilliantly alien tonal mutations Subotnick conjured up back in the 60s. If you're familiar with either artist's work you won't be disappointed, as exquisitely rendered melodic flourishes, delicate spatial processing and subtle textural shifts unfurl around your ears across these eight beautiful pieces of synth perfection.

Review: After an initial collaborative album released in 2019, French instrumentalist-producers JB Dunckel and Jonathan Fitoussi have reunited for a twin rumination on memory, and its necessary dialogue with the present moment. Namechecking such musical memories as the motorik beats and kosmische builds of the 70s, all the way through to Detroit house's signature 4x4 march, the pair offer a starkly minimal, Parisian, post-punky dance record here, mixed in with layered, industrial atmospherics. Active recalls of marimba minimal ('Marimbaloum') and Moogish doom liturgy ('Atlantica') also lay among the memory traces here, just waiting to be rediscovered by both listener and interpreter.