This gorgeous, pulsing, lightly fractured, seven-minute video of serrated ambient music performed entirely on an Elektron Digitakt was posted by Tom Hall late last year. In it, rapidly cycling bits of noise turn from sharp slivers to lush texture, from harsh to comforting, and back again. The pace is either anxious or genteel, depending on where you ear focuses. Does it attach to the internal motion of these micro-moments, bits of noise and drone churning past each other, or does it fix itself on the underlying big picture, a peaceful tonal space in which stasis is the ruling structure?
This is the latest video I’ve added to my YouTube playlist of recommended live performances of ambient music. The video was first posted on Hall’s YouTube channel last October. More from Tom Hall, an Australian based in Los Angeles, at tomhall.com.au, instagram.com/tomhallsonics, and soundcloud.com/thall. His album Spectra was recently released on the French label Elli Records.