Eso Es

Album review

For years now, the Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist Gregg Kowalsky has been forging his own path in drone-based and experimental sound. Where his prior releases on Root Strata and Kranky were more experimental, Kowlasky’s sounds have swung a bit more to the center, as with his pulsing and hypnotic duo Date Palms. He’s also composed compelling music for orchestras, created works for dance companies, and scored films; Kowalsky doesn’t take any weekends off.

With Eso Es ("This Is" in Spanish), Kowalsky arrives at often gorgeous chill-out music which fixates on the meeting points of minimalist and new age sounds. This is where much of the electronic underground has been hanging out in the last few decades, thanks in part to a series of rediscoveries taken by labels like RVNG and Yoga Records. But it’s distinctive, and decidedly his own take on this mode.

Synthesizers shimmer and shimmy. Percussive elements gurgle, and surprises abound, notably on "Fragile Water," with its Everglades field recordings and restorative balm. Natural themes and sounds are a constant here, though they’re used with surprising variety and subtle complexities. These days everyone thinks they can master this kind of music simply by buying the right gear and copying from the right reissues of private label outsider synth jams or academically-funded GRM type institutional noise makers. The poseurs never quite lock into the work element, though. To create sounds this blissed-out, this hypnotic, this original, it takes years of work, devotion, getting lost in the patches, and waking up soaked in delay. Kowalsky is a true head, and this is his finest work. © Mike McGonigal/Qobuz