- Hypnotic techno from the Tresor resident.
- Simple, heavy, functional, atmospheric—that's Claudia Anderson's discography in a few words. The Austrian artist, who's a resident DJ at Tresor, hasn't given us much to go on so far—just a couple 12-inches in the last seven years released through Marcelus's Singular Records. But tracks like "Hysteria" and "Neutral State," which both reminded me of Marcel Dettmann's tense, tightly controlled style, were good enough to make Synthesis a welcome return. She offers similar themes on the EP's club tracks, and there are dips into ambient and sludgy EBM that suggest an artist with curiosity beyond the dance floor.
Anderson strips her sound down even further on Synthesis. You could call "Structure," "Involvement" and "Synthesis" DJ tools, but it would be more generous to mention the whirlpool-like techno of artists like Voices From The Lake and Svreca. "Structure" reaches the same deeply hypnotic conclusion as the other two, but uses a percussion-heavy toolkit that could have come from Jeff Mills's Purpose Maker series. "Involvement" and "Synthesis" sound more contemporary. Neither has any distinguishing features beyond their sheer density, but they hit their intended target. If you're listening to Synthesis from start to finish, then "H-1 A.P." is a nice breather, combining poignant synth tones with whirring machine glitches. That just leaves "Momentum," the record's black sheep. It comes to life, somewhat surprisingly, with a big '80s gated snare that creates some order in its disorderly soundscape.
TracklistA1 Structure
A2 Involvement
B1 H-1 A.P.
B2 Synthesis
B3 Momentum