Partial Deletion of Everything (Vol. 2) by Monogoto
Another deep dive into the realms of sound impermanence
This second collaboration between Ian Hawgood, Porya Hatami and David Newman is another 35 minute deep dive into the realms of sound impermanence. On 2020's first volume, a single track, entitled Iuxta Mare [deletion 5] (which translates as "By the Sea") used field recordings and electronic instrumentation to simultaneously depict the ebb and flow of a calm sea while commenting on the inevitable frailty of human endeavour.
[Iuxta Mare] chronicles the impact of beautiful moments in time and documents how they change, disintegrate and fade. Each ‘deletion’ references the interplay between physical reality and subjective experience. Our bodies hold memories and experience the impact of changes and loss
Monogoto
Moving inland, volume two explores similar concepts, this time with themes of life and growth (Komorebi means "sunlight filtering through trees") predominating. The music flutters and fades with each artist contribution creating a soothing, flowing harmony. Shapes emerge in the music and then dissipate, with each flow quietly mirroring our own impact on Earth and our associated, fading memories. Seedling (deletion 14) embodies this idea with cooing textures, rising tension and, eventually, serene collapse. Nature can be beautiful and ugly and then forgotten. What we remember may only be the good things but eventually we will forget them too. So while the subtle details in the music fail to linger in the mind for long, the album as a whole is not unmemorable.