Tomás Novoa - Arrecife

In his latest release “Arrecife” Tomás Novoa bops us steadily, patiently through a blissful soundscape of his own unique construction. If you had to paint that landscape, it would most definitely look like the artwork above. The effect is blissfully estranging – not dissimilar to the experience of listening to Jon Hopkins or Nicolas Jaar. We are treated to intimate textures; at times the beat rests on a bedrock of intimate crackling, elsewhere subtle peripheral whispers paint space. The breathy primary vocal sample seems to beckon us, as a soft heartbeat-like thud underpinning the track gradually feels like our own. Maybe most remarkable is Novoa’s ability to transition dynamically between sections of the track, collapsing it all to a minimum, and then sweeping us back in, again and again, gracefully, like we are witnessing a tide moving in and out.