Los Angeles-based artist, Gregg Kowalsky, has been releasing music for close to two decades. An ex-student of Fred Firth and Pauline Oliveros, Gregg has worked with labels like Kranky, and for a while was part of “neofolk” duo Date Palms. Eso Es is his second solo album for Mexican Summer, and his first new set since 2017. A foray into frequency modulation, the LP was recorded almost solely on a Yamaha DX-7 synthesiser / sampler. Building on the pioneering processes of Don Buchla and John Chowning, the record is defined by the machine’s “limitations and possibilities”. 

The opening tracks, Fragile Water and Fontainbleu, map a marvellous middle ground, somewhere between new age and classic ambient, Detroit-influenced techno. Serene Sci-Fi strings mixing with gentle Cluster-esque keys. The pieces expanding out into mellow modular jams. On the latter, the clipped colliding crescendos, their eddying electric current and “organic” overlap, suggest the molecular movement of a fresh mountain stream. The acoustics on Chorus Of Trees are also “aquatic”. The song’s slower oscillations and undulations, though, taking a deeper dive. Something like Cold Open Cascade, on the surface might seem busy, but all of its treated layers are moving in unison, like a shoal of fish, or a flock of migrating swallows or swifts in flight. On the other hand, Nights Move is an exercise in cool, calm, kankyo ongaku simplicity. Floating on church organ-like swells, evolving, stately, from a short, cyclical repeat. Throwing Shapes is another rippling river-like rhythm. Raised from programmed patterns of Steve Reich-ian counterpoint. Its pacing owing something perhaps to the post-rock of folks such as David “Papa M” Pajo, while, personally, I can hear Arthur Russell, and his World Of Echo, in the overall melody and brief glimpses of guitar. Brass Dolphins generates romantic themes from glissandos of glass glockenspiel-esque chimes.  

Gregg Kowalsky’s Eso Es is out now on Mexican Summer.