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xato's 4th EP "Annihilation" is more of an ode to past selves than just another music project.
"Annihilation" explores the dark self and the redemption that comes after the following events, with muddy drums and noisy basses being the main sound focus of the project, surrounded by field-recording manipulations and deep evolving textures.
As the opening track, "Reverse" introduces the idea of how our brains remember and process the questionable and hard moments of our past, in a remorseful and harsh one-minute reminder that took place after all the events of "Annihilation".
The second track of the project "Bodies under the Moon", introduces deep drones, lifeless drums on ritualistic patterns and heavy distortion, fused with a sample by the Finnish music composer Mikko Tarmia, best known for his dark scores in critically acclaimed survival horror games, such as SOMA, Penumbra & Amnesia. The sample was used with permission.
"Shattered Dreams" borrows the sonic concept of the previous track. Live processed gnarly bass and an emotionally empty ending, are used as the main expression of the self-titled concept.
"I sacrificed myself to the Gods of Death to live forever inside your body" is a ritual intermission that expresses the urge of merging with one another, for the search of inner peace and security.
The fifth installment of the tragedy, "Destruction", features the notion of life after "death", the birth of new ideas and directions that drag us out of the misery that surrounds us. Deep continuous bass, destructed by the intense emotions of the strings and the progression, fuses the and creates the concept above.
On "From Ashes", xato takes all the textures featured on previous tracks of the project and combines them all together with a piano recording by UK artist Waller, mixing them into a dark, but soothing end to the story.
EP contains bonus tracks "Drowning" & "Strum".
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Selected Press:
"xato‘s latest release emphasises a focus on experimental manipulation and muddy abstraction. The evo-natura founder folds transportive, ritualistic drones into manipulated samples of field recordings, creating something that sounds familiar while evoking fear of the unknown." - If-Only
credits
released March 5, 2021
Artwork by v.3lo.
Written, Mixed & Mastered by Ioannis Nafpliotis.
"Bodies under the Moon" contains a sample from "Awaken" by Mikko Tarmia. Used with permission.
Piano on "From Ashes" by Edward Joseph Waller.
