HAAR, SAM - Euso (Sealed) (2LP)

Sam Haar is best known as being one half of musical hardware loving duo Blondes with Zach Steinman. Euso is an intense exploration of sounds, textures and feelings, with field recordings laid over coarse soundscapes. Haar's compositions are woven patchwork-like from the fabric of the sounds that he uses. There is a real feeling that his music is alive, due to the fluidity of his compositions and how the tracks mutate. The album opener Paradiso offers colourful synthetics alongside running water and bold sounds. Hal (the Slip) features urgent percussion and hypnotic bass sounds, whilst Gold Coast sees vibrant synths do battle over emotive strings. Radial splits sounds and reforms textures in an ever-changing manner and Stabilis snatches lost dialogue over machinery type misshapen beats and poised synths. Awatsa is bathed in watery synthetics and is lifted higher by combo of strings and punched beats, as Hive offers wonderful synth based confusion. Plegadas rounds off the LP with eerie strings, ghosted vocal forms and enveloping synths.