RL Huber - Dagos

 Released: May 23

For a good chunk of its runtime, Dagos is rather minimalist in its approach with some moments of increased fulness. I think my favorite bit of minimalism on the album is the title track, “Dagos.” It’s a very slow moving piece with some dark and insidious-sounding pad work. The pads build up a light bit of tension before release that is joined wonderfully with a minimal bit of piano. All the keys here seem to be played at the lowest register, with the notes almost thudding along with the pads. It’s a remarkable atmosphere created by this combination that feels almost horror movie-esque in quality without going over the top. It is interestingly contrasted by the song that follows it, “The Damage Done.” This one has a lighter quality in the pads but it retains that slightly sullen atmosphere with he lower register piano keeping the elements of tension. 

The minimalism of this album is one of the best aspects about it as it winds together no more than two or two elements together per track. The piano is probably the one feature that is ever present throughout, acting as a sound of foundational element of the album. There’s not a great deal of field recordings present, with the primary exception being the final track, which is another of my favorites here. “Telos” opens with the field recordings at the forefront, starting with rusting of leaves or other similar objects and lonely footsteps across a hard surface in an echo-y chamber. It feels like being in a haunted space, not in a particularly scary way but more of a liminal type of way. It’s like we are hearing little more than the ghosts of previous events, not the current events. It’s all very curious and lovely, in a very peculiar way.