Performing as Age Wave, Ren Schofield offers a fleeting glimpse of the divine, or perhaps a brief sketch of the cosmos. His “Telephone Dreams” (Bathetic) single is an exercise in tape loops and sonic manipulation. Rather than uncontrolled squalls or blistering interjections, Schofield cranks up the subtlety on both sides of this 7″. Both pieces are designed around low-frequency repetitions, providing a bed for either decayed loops, echo decay, ethereal synthetic scales, or meaty synth swells.
Schofield invokes earthiness as much as outer space, so in all fairness to him I am following both realms — airy, shimmering, angelic passages flutter across the spectrum, only momentarily. Synthesizers invoke woodwinds, peacefulness, serenity. Following multiple listens, the fleeting nature of these pieces becomes infectious, one of the single’s strengths: no time to develop the passages into oblivion, Schofield edits his experimentation to an essential statement.
All this, and it’s nearly over before it started. Utterly captivating. I’m surprised I’m writing this instead of flipping over and over. You might scoff, but it’s true; those subsonic repetitive foundations hook to your soul.
7/10
