- I’ve heard Dion Tartaliogne -the eponymous Planète- described as one of Australian electronica’s best kept secrets. Well, that’s certainly a good way to talk about his latest blink-and-you-missed-it EP, Continuum. The whole concept is kind of self-effacing, when you think about it. A whole record that plays without a break, from end to end, no bangers to jump out at you, no singles to storm up the charts. Dion is almost modest to a fault, speaking of it: “I’ve had the idea of creating a continuous and seamless playback style EP for quite a while. It isn’t a new idea but it was new for me to try.” There’s more to the concept than that, however, as he elaborates: “The EP is centralised on the theme of a thought process and its relationship with consciousness. The themes in the undercurrent of the tracks play out as a succession of this process pulling together internal and external patterns. The way in which the EP is themed is a direct relationship to the approach I took whilst making it.”
I feel like that could take a lot of unpacking, really and maybe it’s easier just to head straight to the sound itself and see how the ideas work themselves out in music. Mesmerisingly, as it turns out. Thirty minutes of ambient house was always quite likely to be. Taking cues from the more hypnotic moments of Fourtet or Jon Hopkins, Continuum imparts a sense of cosmic awe that never really retreats, across the course of the record.
The syncopated house beats are quite a Euro affectation, first really coming into their own on Res Cogitans, they could’ve cut through the ambient haze, but Dion doesn’t let them do that, finding a steady happy balance between the anchoring rhythm and the ever-present atmosphere. Planète only really cuts loose towards the end of the record, on Unfold Of Unison as the synths build to a warm and glorious fuzz, as though approaching the stellar center of this cosmic groove.
At the far end of Continuum’s journey I’m not sure I’m better equipped to analyse the interplay of Dion’s thought processes, or their relationship with consciousness. Clearly I’m neither a neurologist or cosmologist, but I can tell you this is a very solid contribution to the sound of ambient house and -hopefully- it won’t be quite so much of a secret now.
- Chris Cobcroft.