The title of this EP really says it all. With simple means – a vintage analogue keyboard, drum machine and a handful of effects pedals – Newcastle-based musician Chris Hearn creates music that deals with the cyclical nature of time. Small thematic clues are given in the cover artwork, but really it’s the music that speaks for itself.

‘Cycles’ begins with washed-out keyboard tones that sound like they’re beamed in from another planet. A drawn-out melody emerges, while underneath a slowed-down drum beat putters away. Hearn’s monk-like vocal sounds infinitely weary, before segueing into ‘Evolution’. This is a reworking of a track from an earlier release, The Origin of Species EP. Based around a heavily delayed beat, it’s stark in its minimalism and repetition, but over time it does indeed evolve.

The final song, ‘Movement’, displays the kind of motorik rhythm and potentially infinitely recurring melodic motif often associated with electronic pioneers such as Kluster. It becomes progressively subsumed by a distorting effect, which keeps blurring its edges like a camera lens losing its focus. As the beat is drowned out, different cycles emerge, until the music consists of layers of electronic pulses.

What’s fascinating, is that all this is achieved in three tracks that don’t last longer than the average pop song. Hearn’s creations state their point quickly and then fade away. In conjunction with the simple tools he employs, this lends them a domestic aura, a point emphasised by the snapshot used on the CD cover. This smallness of scale is a large part of Alps’ appeal. Technology is not something to be fetishised, but merely a means to create the work itself.

While Hearn has stated that all of Alps’ releases are grounded in conceptual and semiotic approaches, it’s not necessary to be aware of these to appreciate the music. Nothing here is laboured. In fact, all music on this EP was improvised live with no overdubs or editing. This immediacy engages the listener in the same way a live performance does, encouraging active listening and an immersion in the moment. The EP’s length is equally perfect and invites repeated listening – surely something its creator would encourage.

by René Schaefer