My "Amuse-gueules" series ('lil hors d'œuvre appetizers) has been a platform for experimentation, a tabula rasa of sorts, to upend older, unfinished ideas while introducing new 'ting and refining studio technique. Accross these 8 tracks, I've versioned a number of riddims, repurposed long-form spoken word from "Chocolat (1988)" and tucked Ethel Ellis under warp garridge basslines, all while managing to pull off an indisposable slice of "afterburn rave" delectability. Look out for lysergic, xylophonic geometries, febrile sonic brushstrokes, interpolating South Yorkshire bass mutations across widescreen landscapes into smoky after-hours speakeasies.

The last two tracks happen after dusk. On a damp night in 1Q84, Aomame nurses her verre à absinthe, at a hotel bar in Shibuya as "10 Sides of Ethel Ennis" floats out from the jukebox with a gratuitous level of lusciousness. Meanwhile, El Sapo dreams of endless battles of contrasting memories.

Segunda Esquina (Artibella Riddim)

Zsófi's Theme

Arise (Ghetto People Riddim)

À la douane (ft. Emmet Judson Williamson)

Aomame only drinks Absinthe at night

Drive (Ethiopian Kings Riddim)

Originally released on vinyl 12", this four-tracker entitled Afternoon Delighting draws conceptual and lyrical inspiration from the "Chanson d'Après-midi" by Charles Baudelaire (and others from the collection Les Fleurs du Mal), each piece ruminates on the myriad shades of grey between the poles of bitter & sweet, friendship & enmity, sacred & profane love.

Showcasing his affection for dub-influenced production and inter-wreathed textural deployments, Ruoho Ruotsi uses these elements as a compositional base upon he builds and intertwines an assortment of sonic leitmotifs, invoking on one hand the imagery of wistfulness and bygone intimacy and on the other a capricious and whimsical pneuma.

Sweet Bits

Dolores Tristes

Afternoon Delighting

Bramble Bramble

Multicoloured blasts of undulating, unstable tapestries, ricocheting Dancehall mutations over reverbed-out dread techno bassline warps

Raised on a diet of  1970s Afrobeat, Jùjú music & genre-defying Black American pop, Ruoho's music draws upon the visceral aesthetics of dub, techno, garage & impractical melodic leitmotifs from experimental electro-acoustics, fusing them into imaginative new exhilarations, sometimes 4-on-the-floor, other times Avant-dubwise or ambient. His music has been described by some as “vaporous”, “aching and expansive” & “a wicked dub abstraction”.

Ruoho won an international BBC Radio 1 remix competition, reshaping Steve Reich's seminal piece “Music for 18 Musicians” & has released 12" vinyl records on numerous boutique labels like Unfulfillment (Montréal), Zero G Sounds (Boston), Thoughtless Music (Toronto), de'fchild productions (San Francisco), Adjunct Digital (Los Angeles), Skor Records (Los Angeles), Auralism (San Francisco) & Creaked Records (Switzerland). He has performed live at the Winter Music Conference (Miami), Decibel Festival (Seattle) as well as numerous underground venues across North America.

New tracks tagged #studio alchemy