Album Info

The Crystal Ark

Electronic - 2012

DFA artist and former LCD Soundsystem collaborator Gavin Russom seems to be in several places at once these days, twiddling... more

Tracklist

1

Ascension

5:39 min
2

We Came To

8:24 min
3

Morir Soñando

5:25 min
4

Crossing

9:40 min
5

Paradise

4:23 min
6

Rhodes

8:37 min
7

Rain

3:32 min
8

Silver Cord

7:56 min

About The Crystal Ark

DFA artist and former LCD Soundsystem collaborator Gavin Russom seems to be in several places at once these days, twiddling knobs and poking computer keyboards for all kinds of projects. With The Crystal Ark, Russom makes music that's a smooth meeting of shiny electronica and warm Latin flourishes. He partners here with artist/vocalist Viva Ruiz, who sings (sometimes in Spanish) amid Afro-Latin percussion, thumping synths, laser-beam sound flashes, and rippling, resonant keyboard notes. It's not easy to turn out music that's hot and cold at the same time, but that's what Russom and Ruiz manage here. Disco-flavored dance tunes seem to spiral endlessly, with trancelike effect, but breaking a sweat doesn't seem to be the point. Blending tropical rhythms with electronica makes for a neat balancing act: "We Came To" pits Ruiz' sweet Spanish against LCD-like plunkety-plunk synths, which soon give way to bouncing hand drums and clattering rim-play. Wooden percussion pieces and hissing shakers accent the sleek synth streaks on "Morir Soñando," while the blinking, polyrhythmic playfulness of "Rain" is a dancer's delight.