Cory Allen

The quiet revolution of laptop aesthetics continues its glacial pace. Allen’s basic operations include two competing, or cooperative, layers of sound that slide across each other, panning channels for gold. A layer of gauzy melody rises and falls in volume and density, infected by a layer of electro moths intent on chewing holes in anything vaguely pretty. The longer tracks, "Telepathic Solve” and "We Have Lots of Time,” contain a more subliminal second melody that may be created when the two other layers meet or by the listener’s needful ear. This minimalism of repetition and variation creates a world that invites that ear to listen more closely. The tonal style fits comfortable in the canon of Raster_Noton-style granular synthesis, though Allen’s music is a little more of the surfaces than the depths.