- Toronto label Marionette offers little conceptual explanation of Little Mary, a new offshoot focused on split EPs and collaborative works, beyond some poetic prose. Instead they place trust in the strength of the music, choosing two complementary musicians in Kilchhofer and Hainbach. Acosta is a record of deliciously understated electronics whose subtle charms are further coaxed out with each play.
The A-side's entrancing music shows Benjamin Kilchhofer enjoying the new creative direction he pursued last year on another 12-inch for Marionette. Nature seems key to nine-minute opener "Aska," field recordings of birds and other fauna as integral to the track's mood as the percussive and synthetic ripples that foreground them.
By contrast, "Uzala" seems a study in human emotion, a delicate interplay between ritualistic chants, tender organs and twilit synths set to the backdrop of a crackling campfire. In between, Kilchhofer conjures a hypnotic mess on the richly detailed "Russ" and resurrects Francis Bebey's psychedelic sanzas on the smudged "Suckfuell."
Such is the strength of the A-side that it would be easy to gloss over Hainbach's contributions. But there is much to savour in the German composer's B-side tracks. There's the cavernous kosmische of "Heart Of Darkness," whilst "I Be Electric" features a single, strikingly beautiful moment. For the most part the track is an exploration of gloopy tape loops, but he breaks them up around the five-minute mark with a modular synth line that almost blinds you with its incandescence.
TracklistA1 Kilchhofer - Aska
A2 Kilchhofer - Russ
A3 Kilchhofer - Suckfuell
A4 Kilchhofer - Uzala
B1 Hainbach - By The Motorway, By The River
B2 Hainbach - Heart Of Darkness
B3 Hainbach - I Be Electric
B4 Hainbach - Counterpoint