John-Robin Bold is a young electronic musician from Hamburg, whose interests lie in the field of experimental, classical and pop music. In addition to his skills in producing electronic music and media art, John-Robin has an education as a classical guitarist. Quite recently his debut untitled album was released by reactivated legendary German label Mille Plateaux. Now he has released his second album on Quanta Records from France, a label specialising in different forms of modern electronic music.
This new work by Bold has an interesting conceptual background. The first track of the album is based on the idea of radical deconstruction of a sample by reverb effects to produce a polyphonic piece. This track became the main source for the whole album. According to the info text this idea came to the musician in 2015 and since that time he has started the process of selection, cutting and pasting “to form a collage of perspectives…”. It took almost five years to create something finalised. I must say that the artistic concept (or theory) of Bold, represented in the info text with this album, is quite interesting by itself.
At the moment we have four tracks that contrast with each other. At the beginning of track number 1, it sounds like a meditative ambient piece, mutating into something more radical and dark in the second half. Track 2 sounds even more radical and intensive due to the elements of noise and glitch. The third track is a long piece that begins with more relaxed and concentrated sounds, but later transforming into deep, atmospheric and monumental substance with micro glitches and sharp cuttings. Track 4 begins with an electric drone, supported by a deep atmospheric background with small clicks. The last part of the track is really impressive, combining frozen electronics with an apocalyptic final.
So, Demonstrations by John-Robin Bold demonstrates his abilities to produce interesting electronic music of high quality and intensity.
Author: Alexei Borisov
