After three years of absence on the record release scene, David Letellier, aka Kangding Ray returns in his most beautiful outfit. An appearance that he had left aside in recent years to explore much more Techno shapes through his latest releases. Used to being released on the prestigious Label that splitted into 2 parts in 2017, Raster-Noton, the album that comes out today is released on the very young Ara Label Records, owned by the artist himself. The much less known side of the artist sends us directly to the evidence of the project proposed along the new album. Indeed the French artist, currently based in Berlin, is first of all graduated in architecture. His projects focus on the perception of sound and space, on the edge of architecture, sound and art. His work, ranging from audiovisual performances, sound installations, to autonomous machines or conceptual drawings, can be defined as “an attempt to express sound as a form in movement”. [About david Letellier]
Now, returning to this album, which was composed for SKALAR, an audio-visual kinetic art installation, and the great pleasure in which I return to David Letellier today, I invite you to read the intents and thoughts related to this audio-visual project:
SKALAR is a large-scale art installation that explores the complex impact of light and sound on human perception. The massive audio-visual sculpture is a collaborative piece by light artist Christopher Bauder and musician Kangding Ray. They first presented this immersive audio-visual experience inside the pitch-dark industrial space of Kraftwerk Berlin during CTM Festival 2018. While SKALAR ran daily as an exhibition for four weeks, the artists also performed four exclusive live shows.
The live performance of SKALAR is an extended and intensified version of the exhibition cycle. Performed and experienced as a concert, SKALAR live has a defined duration and a dramaturgic development with alternating ambient and beat-driven sections. The connection between beats and real-time visuals play a more dominant role in the live setting. Every live performance is slightly different, and both visuals and music are controlled, altered and arranged by Christopher Bauder and Kangding Ray in real time on location.
The concept of SKALAR is based on Robert Plutchik’s psychoevolutionary theory of emotion that considers eight primary emotions: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy. The combination of kinetic mirrors, perfectly synchronized moving lasers, a changing color palette, and a sophisticated multi-channel sound system triggers sensory and psychological reactions and offers a truly innovative way to experience and feel art.
So, when I tell you that I’ve renewed with this artist and his glittering suit of lights, it’s because this album sends me directly back to his OR album, released by Raster-Noton in 2011.
The scrolling of the album is smooth, but the evidence that this release is part of one of the best electronic album of this year, takes shape from the Lodos track, and this until the end of the release. With, for my part, a striking surprise on the track Qalm. If your audio playback equipment allows it, turn up the gain to let all the bass envelop your room. But pay particular attention to the setting of your amplifier (mine being set, of course without Loudness, Bass-2 / Tremble +2) when playing Ter. Enjoy!