Berne based drummer, percussionist, producer and sound artist Julian Sartorious is back with a new album called Locked Grooves which is out now via OUS. According to the press release, Julian Sartorius aims to test infinity. Focussing on reduction and repetition, the versatile artist, drummer, and percussionist has recorded an album capable of suspending time. Exploring the potential of a repertoire performed under rigorous conditions and regulated by a loop length of 1.8 seconds, Sartorius responds with a disciplined focus on tonal nuances, micro expressions and shifting time signatures.
The 112 locked grooves of this album — or 112 one-minute loops on the digital release — unveil an abundance of rhythmic forms, some vigorous, some frail, others impulsive, alluring, and adrift. Sartorius’ precise, multi-layered rhythmical patterns are incisive excursions into the hidden tones of found objects and prepared instruments, concise arrangements which bridge the gap between sound art and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music.
On ‘Locked Grooves’ Sartorius interrogates the idea of a ‘static’ groove, unfurling an endless, meticulously gradated percussive suite. This is the point at which intangible structures materialize, becoming four-dimensional, sculptural, solid. Sartorius explains: «I hope listeners will experience these compositions like they would explore a painting at a museum – letting the work unfold in depth, revealing layer after layer.»
Listen below.