Matthew Ryals - "etude no. 12 (take 2)"

Having been a fan of Matthew Ryals’ music since hearing it for the first time in 2015 or thereabouts, it’s been thrilling to see Ryals’ gradual evolution to synth-pop explorations with a great deal of pathos to more hardware-dominated generative compositions that still retain a great deal of that pop-forward pathos. For “Generative Etudes 2.0” the compositions are replete with heavily processed rhythmic passages stretching and compressing with increasing elasticity, washes of ambient and artificing noise careen around the stereo field. According to the press release, “The music of Generative Etudes Vol 2.0 is made of percussive surprises and unexpectedly playful chopped-up synths. Matthew's rules, as interpreted by the machines, produce fast, unpredictable changes in timbre and rhythm at every corner. The resulting excitement is not unlike the one we experience when visiting a new place - or perhaps, when discovering a new possible world: with a brief glimpse of the infinite intricacy behind its rules that will remain unknown to us, we are pushed to reconsider the rules of our own real world.”

After following this work for so long, it’s clear that Ryals is a musician who is always in search for new challenges and modes to express the ineffable conditions of being alive.