CD – Important

All of the tracks on this release from Mo H. Zareei (mHz) derive their names from mathematical functions which in turn are used to generate the sounds and give form to tonal and rhythmic structures. The raw materials that result are then processed through a series of audio effects and organized and structured in a rather bare and direct compositional form. The approach can be defined as reductionist and produces rather rhythmic effects, in perfect balance between the distinctive granular qualities of the sounds and the hypnotic pace of the audio impulses that are generated for this purpose. The Iranian electronic musician, sound artist and researcher who now resides in Wellington, New Zealand, uses custom software and hardware. His experiments include a wide range of electronic compositions, kinetic sound sculptures and audiovisual installations. Function follows the previous album on Kasuga Records, from 2019, Form. This word game is somewhat tongue in cheek because for the masters of the modern movement form follows function and not the other way around. It seems evident that mHz is at ease managing different fields, mathematics and music, aesthetics and structure, architecture and sound generation, sculpture and visual imagery, a vocation that is equally recognisable in his 2015 project Brutalist Noise Ensemble, a research project on the principles of brutalist architecture reflected in sound art sculpture. This time the resulting sequences emanate a hypnotic charm and an orderly, powerful, abrasive and geometric poetry. They are divided into eight different tracks, compositions that feed a decidedly solid and synthetic rhythm, different at each passage but at the same time stylistically coherent. Mo H. Zareei knows how to hold the listener’s attention with repetitive but not unsurprising sounds, small remodulations and expressive jumps, debunking the cliché that art-music does not welcome the use of beats.

 

mHz – Function