- Whimsical electronics to whisk you to another world.
- Marionette is one of the most unusual labels to get regular airplay from dance music DJs. (Ben UFO is a fan.) It's not that the music is inaccessible—far from it—but it doesn't fit any easy classification. The Toronto outlet has described itself as releasing "hard to place" electroacoustic music, oddities that blur the border between live instrumentation and electronics. Somewhere between ambient, krautrock and micro house, these tracks can sound intricate and artificial one moment and earthy the next, like downtempo music built out of twigs, wires and circuit boards. Marionette's music is charming, homespun and deceptively complex, growing more curious the closer you inspect. The label's latest, from the Basel-based artist Papiro, is a case in point: La Finestra Dentata is a collection of strange music from an artist I've never heard of, and yet it's also warm and welcoming, full of hooks that relax you then tickle your brain.
La Finestra Dentata is made from pieces that Papiro wrote and recorded in the last five years for live sets. Even so, it has a cohesive, almost cozy feel. The opener "Odilon" is like walking through a blooming springtime meadow, with twinkling synths and cascading melodies sounding like woodland creatures and bird calls—imagine an early Disney movie as seen through the mind of Edgar Froese. There's a whimsical quality to this music captured in the song titles, which refer to out-there creatures or ideas like "Il Grande Anatroccolo" ("the big duckling") or "Il Triciclo Nascosto" ("the hidden tricycle"), names that are both cute and unnerving. (See also "Geisterstube," or "ghost room.")
Papiro strives to make "therapeutic" music, which you can hear on the LP's two longest tracks, "Anelli" and "La Finestra Dentata." Both feature layer upon layer of glowing synth arpeggios that intertwine and twist like gilded ribbons, playing out melodies that might feel childlike if they weren't so complicated. These melodies wash over you like a chorus of angels. Listening to them makes you feel good, and the mood is lofty without being pretentious or overly complicated.
The rest of the tracks are shorter, odd little vignettes that play on a central theme. "Romeo On The Beach" has a whiff of pulp sci-fi with its trilling, theremin-like melodies and odd squelches that sound a bit like a child imitating a cat's meow. By the same token, underneath the playful jumble of drums on "Bodulator" are burbling noises that could be the call of exotic, imaginary animals. This track uses its uncanny sound palette to stimulate the imagination much in the same way as a colourful Saturday morning cartoon—it's adventurous while also comforting.
Though La Finestra Dentata feels like in-between music, it's not as if Papiro doesn't have his antecedents. There's a strong krautrock, specifically kosmische, thread that runs throughout, from the Tangerine Dream arpeggios of "Anelli" to the ominous Kraftwerkian thrust of "Barbadura." Papiro is working in a tradition. But where these sounds often evoke images of space or futuristic societies, La Finestra Dentata feels closer to earth, or maybe some other lush, green realm. It's exactly the kind of familiar yet can't-put-your-finger-on-where-or-why world that the best Marionette releases conjure up, each one offering an escape from the usual electronic music tropes, a place that stimulates your imagination and your pleasure centres.
Tracklist01. Odilon
02. La Finestra Dentata
03. Anelli
04. Barbadura
05. Romeo On The Beach
06. Il Grande Anatroccolo
07. Bodulator
08. Geisterstube
09. Il Triciclo Nascosto
10. After Hour (Bonus Track)