conforce: kinetic image

Boris Bunnik presents his third full-length album as Conforce, titled Kinetic Image. In the last few years, Dutchman Bunnik has established himself as one of the most prolific producers in many different sonic realms. From deep, stripped-down explorations to raw and rugged techno via conceptual and cinematic sound design projects, he is a master craftsman who coaxes evocative sounds from both analog and digital tools whether working as Versalife, Silent Harbour, or any of his other monikers. Kinetic Image, though, is the sound of Conforce producing without the dancefloor in mind. It's the sound of him moving away from the past and into the present. The album has very much been designed to be heard in one sitting, as a complete experience that moves away from regimented 4/4 beats and into slower, more surreptitious tempos. The result is an all-consuming sonic journey of intriguing and inspiring sounds that range from full-on cerebral excursions into vast open spaces that throb invitingly ("Scientific Trajectory") to underwater daydreams that suspend you deep in an ocean as various micro-bacterial details float by. There's also more industrial-sounding fare that depicts a desolate warehouse in perennial decay ("Semantic Field") and mysterious echo chambers that spread out all around you as celestial light beams and haunting melodic ripples gently float by as per the excellent "Temporary Reversals." An aquatic vibe pervades -- no doubt a side effect of recent projects under other monikers -- and the title itself relates to the fact that Conforce wanted to make moving images and art that evolve and unfold like passing landscapes. He sure has done that, because Kinetic Image is like an imaginary soundtrack to the last days of Atlantis: it sucks you in, it churns you about and it makes for music that consumes your whole consciousness and rewards it with very real sonic imagery. As is always the case with this label, the album comes with bespoke artwork from Dutch designers Graphic Surgery who are inspired by "urban environments" and "experimental electronic music from the 1990s." Created using an analog spray paint/stencil technique, each "box" or "step" is an original image on paper and gives rise to the aesthetic of minor failures. As such, the repetitive and monochromatic design they have come up with for Kinetic Image is both structured and architectural yet dynamic and fluid at the same time. Completed with crisp typography and luxurious amounts of negative space, it's artwork as considered as the music it conceals.