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Soundsystem Pastoral was recorded by Daniel Lopatin aka Dania Shapes during the winter of 2004 using synthesizers, a first generation digital sequencer, and a freeware sound editor. It was remixed in 2006 for the release on naivsuper.
Celebrating the potential of amateurishness, decadence and romance in the realm of digital audio arts, Lopatin looks to marry the aesthetic sensibilities of experimental electronics with his allegiance to the classic 'beauty' in music. 'Glitch' is less a process for Lopatin -- rather it is an aesthetic impression which Lopatin emulates by hand. Pairing the residual effects of romantic, heart string melodies with steroidal, detailed, maximalist noise, Dania Shapes' audible bricolage is a tribute to both the beautiful and the broken all at once.

Working with simple tools such as handheld tape recorders, retro synthesizers, and a personal computer, Lopatin creates conceptual systems and processes to create a solo music that's beautiful and inventive, with interesting textures and unexpected sonic interventions. The music has a lush, ambient quality, but an edge as well. Throughout the CD, one finds a subtle use of repetition. The pieces are formally well-conceived and never contrived. The music is clearly indebted to heroes of electronica such as Christian Fennesz, William Basinski, and Brian Eno; and it has links to classic experimentalists such as David Tudor and David Behrman. Yet Lopatin maintains a more song-based musical position that results in an accessible product that will attract fans of ambient, post-rock, and experimental music.

artist: Dania Shapes

titel: Soundsystem Pastoral

tracklist:

1. Sunset Corp 2.55 // 2. Cemetery Feeling Unlimited 2.41 // 3. Winter Games 3.08 // 4. Baroque Travel Aid 6.23 // 5. Lovers Ex Audio 4.30 // 6. Cemetery Feeling Limited 2.55 // 7. Exit Strategies 8.01 // 8. December Waiting Room 1.35
full-length: 32:00 min

general:

naivsuper CDr 007 / music by Daniel Lopatin / recorded in 2004, remixed in 2006 / coverart: Stephane Leonard / silk screen print: naivsuper Team / www.naivsuper.de / www.daniashapes.com / p + c 2006 naivsuper & Daniel Lopatin / all rights reserved

format: CDR

price: 8 euro **

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Drones built by means synthetic materials and layers of noise. A strong emphasis on rhythmic cycles permeates the whole project, being articulated in two independent layers that, in turn, refer back to two separate discourse levels: a teeming, chaotic surface and a linear, constant interior with a calmer outlook, -its bland approach to harmony highly reminiscent of pop-, created by means of the superimpositions of several oscillator waves.

Daniel Lopatin, the man behind Dania Shapes is someone new to me. He learned to play the piano, destroyed the presets of his father synthesizer, studied aesthetic philosophy and experimental music and plays music 'celebrating the potential of amateurishness, decadence and romance in the realm of digital arts' - wow. 'Soundsystem Pastoral' was already recorded in the winter of 2004, but recently remixed and released. Even by 2004 standards it sounds pretty dated. Lopatin likes glitch music, especially he shows to be a good student of the works of professor doctor C. Fennesz, lecturer of glitch music from the University of Vienna. The eight pieces uses small, repeating clicks and processed hum and bum in the background. At a neat thirty-two minutes, this is a most enjoyable release actually, if not really surprising at all. Oval, Fennesz and the other 5000 microsound artists proof all to be an inspiration, and Dania Shapes is just one of them.