Naum Gabo

Sometimes, the music matches my mood. And this Monday morning I wake up a little distressed. Perhaps some remnants of a previous night’s nightmare have spilt into this world and left me slightly edgy. Reality can surely shape one’s dreams, but can it also be impacted in reverse I wonder. I haven’t followed the deep catalogue of twelve-inchers from the Glasgow-based duo of Jonnie Wilkes and James Savage releasing under the Naum Gabo project name over the last 15 years, but I am happy to land on their first proper full-length album, titled F. Lux. This is a proto-techno meets industrial meets dark ambient apocalyptic dream score, encompassed in compelling rhythm, distorted soundscapes, and wicked moods. I hear a bit of Demdike Stare, Raime, Vatican Shadow, and The Haxan Cloak, and if this rope of names means anything to you at all, I reckon you’ll connect with Naum Gabo. “A consistent source of fascination for us are sounds that sit with some difficulty beside one another, but once heard, just have to be. A perversion, misapplication, accident, call it what you will, but we see this inelegance as ok.” I think there is pure beauty in this darkness, and its existence is a must. How else are we to tell the difference in contrast if every single moment feels the same? For today’s track premiere, I select a less rhythmic piece that opens up the album – I want it to be just a prelude for your trip. And for the rest, you’ll have to take the plunge.

We meet up religiously on a weekly basis to work on music – this time using a hodgepodge of analogue sequences, drum programming, sampling, sound design, field recordings and experimental processing. The characteristics and sonic qualities of the sound took precedence over the need to have tracks completed. No dogma. We denied ourselves the security of anything that had come before or may lay ahead in our work. A year or so later, these Glasgow/Bathgate smoke signals culminated in the record as you hear it.

— Naum Gabo

Once again, the full album, titled F. Lux is out in just a few days, on March 8th, 2024, available on black vinyl and as a digital release (with two bonus “Reversion” tracks) via DFA Records.