Gideon Wolf – Replicas

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Replicas is the latest album by British composer Gideon Wolf and like a fair amount of music made in 2019 it suggests that the composer has worrying about Brexit and the lack of identity we feel when something takes place that wasn’t voted for by the majority of the residents of the country. The music reflects these troubled times with some truly disorientating neo classical pieces including Retreat which sounds like two pieces playing at the same time leading to a harsh dissonant sound. Though less disorientating, Profit has a grainy gravelly edge to the string loops which blur into a kind of whirl of sound which increases in intensity as the track wears on. The opening two pieces Derelict and Loss veer between slabs of distortion and minimal string arrangements – the beauty rubbing up against the ugliness in inspired fashion.

And that juxtaposition is the key to the record. Pieces like Balance have a Basinski-like beauty as strings are eroded and weathered whilsty the closing circular viola part of opener Derelict is as magnificent and haunting as the record gets. It’s an immersive and lengthy listen with a host of moods and textures but it truly reflects and lot of the confusion of modern life. There’s still beauty amidst the chaos but you have to work a little harder and get through some some tough exposures to find it.