Out-ER sub-label Pregnant Void is proud to announce the release of hi.mo’s debut album Urtìis. Landing on double vinyl in June 2018, it is a fantastically absorbing showcase of the Italian’s weird and wonderful fusion of various strains of sound from jazz to hip hop to classical.
Pregnant Void is dedicated to multidisciplinary cultural projects and electroacoustic music, and this album comes after label founder Simone Gatto’s own album and book, and the Mørk duo’s debut full length. Back in December 2017, Gatto presented the book and record in a conference and live show in his homeland, Lecce, South Italy, in occasion of Velvet Culture Festival, hi.mo was also invited to perform at the same event in anticipation of his debut album. In that context, he cooked up a truly innovative live show that took in lots of deconstructed sounds and avant guard ideas, as does this fine debut.
“The alteration of conventional musical patterns thrills me,” says the artist who is classically trained in piano and uses that knowledge to play with rules, structures and forms. Influenced by IDM, African drums, jazz and the interplay of chords, rhythm and harmony, hi.mo infuses his electro-acoustic productions with found sound samples and analogue and digital tools. The style of Flying Lotus, Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Autechre and many more greats are audible in his music, and on his debut album the artist’s abilities to push the limits, overlap ideas, tease out new musical ground and generally take you on a trip are all laid bare.
It starts with fizzing ambience that is full of menace, then takes in live sounding jazz drums and dreamy synths on ‘’gnot’, psychedelic chords and woozy drums on ‘Dreams’ and prickly textures and broken beats on ‘Dance In Your Dreams.’ ‘Jonaz’ is a tender and thoughtful piece of blissed out instrumental hip hop, while ‘Maakohmustaa’ plays with jazz and hip hop tropes in loungey and romantic ways.
‘Ode B’ has warm, smeared chords and loosely tumbling drums lulling you into a reverie, then ‘Pause’ flutters with classical piano playing that is inescapably poignant. ‘Retro Games’ is again a masterfully melodic track that drifts by like a warm summer breeze and ‘Strum’ is a minimalist piece that shimmers and shines with gorgeous, ever evolving synth lines. The final trio of tracks mix found sounds in cavernous pieces that mix the organic with the synthetic and play with hip hop and jazz in fascinating and moving new ways.
This is a spelling-binding and intimate album that is filled with invention, but never at the expense of the overall experience, which is beautiful and beguiling throughout.
