Richard Pinhas

"We dont need new technique: everybody has a technique. We need new sounds. Trying to find new sounds is difficult." Finding new sounds is the task Pinhas set for himself on Rhizosphere. Not long before, he had acquired a Moog modular synthesizer, then settled into his home studio and began a committed relationship with his new instrument. Rhizosphere wasnt his first solo recording with the Moog - Chronolyse was made a year earlier - but it was the first to be released.On four of its five tracks, Rhizosphere presents just the 25-year-old Pinhas and his synth alone together, a melding of man and machine that gradually becomes an expansive, outward-bound journey. Pinhas simple approach spawned a galaxy of diverse sounds and ideas. Each track on Rhizosphere inhabits its own mini-universe sonically and emotionally. The range of moods traversed is stunning.The only other human being on Rhizosphere is drummer Franois Auger, who accompanies Pinhas on the title track. The escalating arc of its 18-minute run plays like a moon-bound rocket-trip, with pulsing synth and roaming percussion made all the more otherworldly by the decision to filter Augers cymbals through an AKS modular synthesizer.