Cam Recommends

Dozzy’s work on Magda, the album from which “Santa Cunegonda” hails, reminds me of Finnish producer Aleksi Perälä’s output, especially pieces that he relates to the “Colundi sequence,” a concept that I’m still not fully sure I understand, or even think is entirely real (it may be some elaborate musician’s joke), but in practical terms, for Perälä anyway, it means a single-minded obsession with a small set of tones and beats, repeated in hypnotically long fragments. The point isn't really developing a song so much as putting all the components on display as quickly and often as possible and to let the listener really dictate the vibe. It’s ambient music with a thundering heartbeat, and I’m really glad to have found Donato Dozzy as he, alongside outfits like Craven Faults, 36, Loscil, Lawrence English, M. Geddes Gengras and the aforementioned Perälä, are really at the forefront of this mesmerizing type of music. “Active electronic ambient?” Hm. I’m not trying to pigeonhole Dozzy (or any of these other artists), but I find the wavelength that they’re all exploring just a fascinating liminal space between already relatively amorphous genres. Take a spin through the 10 minutes of “Santa Cunegonda” here, and if it kinda drives you up the wall in the first few minutes, you can stop listening since it more or less stays that way, and this just might not be the kind of music for you. Buuuut if you find yourself captivated and maybe even a little bit transfixed, then the rest of this record might be right up your alley.