The music of Ricardo Donoso has always been about subtle shifts and gradual arcs, so it’s appropriate that his new direction is taking time to develop. His recent album, A Song For Echo, was meant as a springboard toward uncharted territory, but Donoso himself insists that this revolution won’t be swift. "Vesperum", from his next album Saravá Exu (out January 31 on Denovali), shows Donoso’s change in progress, hinting at novel paths but still sharing a lot of what made his work up to now so compelling.
-=-=-=-What connects "Vesperum" to Donoso’s previous efforts is its palpable sense of foreboding, the kind that suggests something is perpetually lurking just outside the music’s frame. He’s an expert at creating dark tension out of just a few sonic elements, and here he uses deep synth tones, a submerged heartbeat-like rhythm, and some static for accent. The key is the way he makes these waves rise and fall, building suspense and dropping it back to stasis only to build it up again. In the past, Donoso would often cut this tension with an upswing, a hint that the sun is about to rise. But here his horror film promises nothing beyond the fact that something’s definitely about to go down.
