helioileh - cycles 1-3

Released: March 1

A short EP filled with seductively complex melodies, cycles 1-3 is a lovely little escape that explores the idea of stacking polyrhythms on top of one another. This makes for some rather complex sounding tracks that made me want to listen closer to pick apart the pieces, finding out where they intersect and inevitably cycle back around - hence the name, I suppose. The mixing throughout the album is quite superb considering the conflicting, intersecting, and occasionally harmonizing sounds that are present throughout. Each sound is well-placed in it own area without sounding as though everything is a little too far apart, instead being perfectly spaced. The album starts off with the two shortest tracks with the first leaning heavily into ambient territory with subtle pads holding up the backdrop of the track as a smooth arpeggio synth riles around the foreground. 

The next track carries this theme further including some wonderful vocal-esque pads and slowly rising and falling pads that seem to come in from the sides. There's also the addition of trilling sound, as if the synth is running through an arpeggio rather quickly. But when we get to the final track, things seem to get a little more out there with a wonky little synth that reminds me of a much tamer 303 and some lovely crystalline keys that appear later on. The texture on these keys caught me off guard with the manner in which they seem to shimmer. Slowly, all of the elements come together beautifully over the course of the track until we meet an abrupt end returning to that wonky little sound we started with .