It has been a very long time since I first heard music of Plaster, which was back in Vital Weekly 808. A glimpse at Discogs tells me there were two more releases, also on Kvitnu, but somehow they didn’t reach me. Back then, in 2011, Plaster was a duo of Gianclaudio Hashem Moniri and Giuseppe Carlini, but the latter left in 2015 for a personal break, and ‘Transition’ is the second solo release for Moniri.
In the years in between the duo (and solo) have played around the world and also had some releases on other labels, yet I am told that this new album is a bit different than before, with simpler yet effective pieces and without the complexity of before. Also the music was more or less improvised using analogue synths and hardware with not much more editing and post-production. Before I thought Plaster a bit of an odd ball in the catalogue of Kvitnu, leaning more than their other artists
on the use of synthesizers in a more melodic fashion and that approach is also something done here.
The cosmic synthesizer approach is bend here into a science fiction nightmarish soundtrack with a lower region approach on the keyboard and stronger bending of the oscillators. Rhythm as we know and love it from the world of Kvitnu is not something Moniri dabbles in, not a lot at least, but sometimes comes via the arpeggio chords that are played. It is grim music with grim titles, ‘Imaginary Friend’, ‘Casual Encounter’, ‘Disconnected Heart’, which adds to the slightly dystopian nightmare, I guess. This is also available on LP, hence it clocks in at thirty-six minutes, which is the only downside.
This nightmare could have been a bit longer as far as I was concerned. (FdW)