“Tetramorph,” the new EP from Daniele Antezza’s Inner8, consolidates and expands upon the gains previously made by that project, as well as those made by the acclaimed Dadub production team. Like all previous Antezza productions, it is distinguished by its exactly proportional mix of fluid and ephemeral sound phenomena with rain showers of colossal beats: an alchemical mix which brings us the three-dimensional atmosphere suggested by the Holotone label’s name. “Tetramorph” is no mere reprise of previous recordings, though: with this new work, Antezza again challenges himself to see how his signature style works when it is underpinned by a new set of theoretical or critical ideas, making for a listening experience that is both a thorough examination of existing musical dynamics and a suggestion of a new way forward. 

Each of the four tracks on this EP represents a different phase in a four-fold process of creative praxis. The first phase, “Self Determination,” lays a thick latticework of beats over Middle Eastern marketplace ambience in a way that recalls prime Muslimgauze, particularly that project’s skill in making the foreign seem intimately near. “Iteration” follows “Self-Determination” on the EP just as it does within carefully planned lives. This 2nd track does not motor ahead with great ease, but instead the tempo drops sharply and becomes mired in a kind of transparent gelatinous substance, strongly suggesting that new iterations often mean new challenges, and hold out no guarantees of progress. By contrast, the following track “Consolidation” glides with an aerodynamic sense of freedom that is realized through a synthesis of rational and irrational strategies (themselves manifested in Antezza’s trademark beat shudders and carefully controlled noise-scapes). The closing chapter, “Aufhebung,” is assisted by Koichi Shimizu and places the listener in a central observation chamber from which all these past dynamic changes can be hazily perceived through a sea of electromagnetic interference. As the philosophical meaning of the title suggests, it provides a kind of paradoxical elevation through deconstruction, or the achievement of a greater sense of clarity even as the sonic dirt accumulates.

As Antezza puts it, Holotone’s mission is to communicate “using an unmediated language (art) to express the complexity of our hyper-mediated world”. Having achieved this, “Tetramorph” is music that offers as much of an opportunity for deep inquiry as it does for personal release.

Words: Thomas Bey William Bailey

A01 - Self Determination SNIPPET

Inner8 is Daniele Antezza, a multi-faceted thinker and electronic music producer, member of Dadub duo, founder of Dadub Studio and Holotone label manager, whose regular invocation of the term praxis begins to hint at his creative aims: a primary synthesis of contemplation and action that, in turn, encourages a secondary and entirely unpredictable set of syntheses dependent upon the listener's unique interpretation. Though the Inner8 moniker has been in existence for several years as a private nickname for, as Antezza puts it, his "experimental anarchist sounds," a full-length LP and a bunch of EPs are just now surfacing which will reveal just how much this project has to communicate.

Like many transplants to Berlin's pulsating sonic underground (Antezza moved there from Italy in 2009), his past work seems to communicate traces of the ecstatic with the argot of technical precision and / or scientific rigour. However, Antezza is not what one would call a 'Berlin artist' despite sharing these traits in common with the city's most visionary producers: his work gives off an impression of restless nomadism that has little to do with representing a localized scene. Rather than carrying on the territorial / parochial projects of reinforcing an arts scene's geographic boundaries (or even redefining the boundaries of a musical genre), Inner8 is more concerned with a holistic "deconstructive approach" through which "it's possible to reveal the paradoxes of the dominant thought, the paradoxes behind the status quo." His fascination with concepts as diverse as asymptotes and particle physics, though often trendy among those looking for a seat at the table of the avant-garde, is a heartfelt fascination - moreover, these interests merge perfectly with his relentless theroetical questing.

Antezza's relationship with that city's Stroboscopic Artefacts techno label has been a particularly fruitful one, to the point where his sound work prior to Inner8 is almost synonymous with SA's own development. As one half of the psychonaut duo Dadub along with Marco Donnarumma, Antezza has sculpted deep and immense tracks that mesmerize with their harmonious interplay of force and ambiguity. These features can be heard on standout releases such as the full-length You Are Eternity, their untitled SA EP, and also their growing body of remixes for other artists.  That signature can be identified by its hyperreal sense of presence and immediacy, qualities that have become crucial to the presentation of a music that generally relies on only a few sonic elements per track to communicate its message.

Antezza also takes pride in the ritualistic quality of Inner8's live sets; a mobile laboratory of dynamic tension in which his theories manifest as massive physical vibrations (here we can also see / hear / feel just how well Daniele has absorbed the lessons of the dub "sound system" aesthetic.)

Words: Thomas Bey Williams Bailey