Blutt

Description

Conceived at the foot of the Italian peninsula in Puglia, Patrick Belaga’s Blutt offers music for the unruly imaginary. Blutt’s nine hazy compositions are inspired by a contemplative road trip with a friend and mysterious, muffled music heard from an unidentified source. It was a combination of jazz and classical music that haunted Belaga’s thoughts through the Byzantine city of Gallipoli, and soon infected his dreams of long-gone civilizations. This record is the result. Organic instrumentation and electronic production melt into a sound that is both contemporary and ancient. Samples of mewling incantations and tape hiss sway to the thudding, waltzing thrum of piano chords on “Sigh” while composite layers of Belaga’s cello play in morose harmony on “Rust”. There is a nostalgic sense for the romantic in the uncanny rhythm of a track like “Momentum”. The quarter tones of an Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk scale probe a deep melancholy through Kai Knight’s violin. Also featured are vocalist and musician Jazmin Romero on “Grey Eye” and producer Riley Watts on “The Tunnel is a Tower”. The album was mastered by Rashad Becker, with artwork by Giovanni Furlino and design by N MRE 08. The record is a stunning soundtrack to the strangeness of sleep and the heartbreaking fleetingness of time. Like an intense dream half-remembered, the emotions linger after waking, but the sharp machinations remain just beyond the mind’s grasp.