Marta De Pascalis Sky Flesh

If there"s one specific component that grounds "Sky Flesh",it"s focus. Italian musician and sound designer Marta DePascalis flexed her technical muscle on 2020"s "SonusRuinae", layering various sounds and processes in anattempt to touch the sublime. In contrast, "Sky Flesh" is asingle thought, composed using just one instrument: theYamaha CS-60. A slimmed-down sibling to the gargantuanCS-80 - the analog synthesizer used by Vangelis to createhis iconic "Blade Runner" score - the CS-60 was released in1977, a few years before the MIDI protocol was introducedto help standardize production methods. MIDI would changethe electronic music landscape completely, offering a levelof control that De Pascalis consciously relinquishes,preferring to highlight expressiveness and timbre, elementsmore readily associated with acoustic instruments. Thealbum arrives as much of the wider experimental scenebusies itself with algorithmic composition and AI-assistedmodeling; De Pascalis chooses to work instead like anorganologist, harnessing the CS-60"s mercurial magic tosuggest deeper truths about our evolving relationship withmachines.