“Flow” reviewed by The Wire

Joaquim is a key figure in Portuguese electronic music, as well as being heavily involved in a number of cross-media activities (film, visual arts, dance, etc). Flow takes as its basis the human voice (provided by fellow Crónica artist Filipa Hora) and synthesizes a bleak but beautiful electronic meditation on the nature of identity. “Slow Moments” is strongly reminiscent of AGF’s fractured confessionals, with Hora’s conspirational whisper negotiating a path through a sonic landscape littered with other samples of her voice. “Thinking Moments” captures the tiny sounds of moistened lips and snatched breath, adding heavily processed guitar to the mix, creating an engagingly intimate tone poem. Joaquim has a great gift for drawing out rhythmic and melodic patterns from the shards of sound produced by his software, giving Flow a pop heart that could see it finding favour with fans of the more “consumer-friendly” glitchery of Fennesz, Microstoria, et al.

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