Orina Totti & Diurnal Burdens - esperluette

 Released: February 13

A two-piece album of small and discrete sounds layered in tricky ways, esperluette winds its way through strange places in just just over twenty minutes. It starts out deceptively quiet with acute droning sounds that are manipulated subtly through means of tape and other analog machinations. But as the first half carries on slowly, the barely cognoscible found sounds creep in and begin adding a certain quality to the atmosphere that is hard to describe but certainly ramps up the anxiety slightly. Ultimately, these sounds fade and are replaced by more vociferous sounds of rustling, clicking, and the thumping of a mishandled microphone and unrecognizable words come through a radio in the background.   

It's not easy to pin down the theme of this album into simple words, but suffice to say that there is a dynamic that sees the atmosphere shift from something dark and brooding to something with a more serene vibe. It never fails to return to that bit of uneasiness though. In the second track, roughly four minutes in, we are taken to a part that feels almost like a clearing in the forest of disquieting sounds that we have been wandering through. For a second, the pervasive drones are gone or at least severely attenuated and there is a moment of tonal bliss as the clouds seem less heavy. Even with this bit of bliss, the deep drones periodically burst in again, reminding us that the darkness is still here. Strange, beautiful, haunting, and dynamic - a fantastic atmospheric amble.