Review: Cinchel - Stereo Stasis

Cinchel keeps the elements in gentle balance. The most notable demonstration of this resides in those little waves of low frequency that emerge and recede during “Static (homeward bound)”; delicately sliding beneath the looped bell tones and soft gloopy synth pools, retaining a certain pendulumic equilibrium in its back and forth between presence and absence. There is stasis within this work, but not that of a ruthlessly fixed state; it’s a stasis that maintains itself within a constant cycle of movement, with each sound continuously re-shaped to accommodate the introduction and departure of texture – like a perfect sphere spinning on its axis, caught in an illusionary stillness by the impeccable symmetry of its construct, the only visible change being the colours within it that forever fade and mutate.

It’s a stasis that cleverly derives immobility by overlapping elements that unfold at different paces. On “Wandering/Collapse/Breakdown/Ultimate Heat Death”, a muffled synthesiser quivers under light, irregular tremolo, while background drones glisten and curve in gradual gradients, making a steady – almost unnoticeable – shift from a stream of high pitches to a bed of deep drones. Each layer operates on its own individual speed while simultaneously slotting into a mutual timeframe – a universal clock – like the immoveable source of gravity at the centre, and the unique orbital modes of the planets that surround it.