Taylor Deupree is one of the closest personifications of the concept of “world opera”; it has Babel-like interests that it carries out all together using the most dispersed languages. One could say he cultivates the lost art of conversation, thanks to which, with a disproportionate number of artists (from Ryuichi Sakamoto to Stephan Mathieu, from Richard Chartier to Eisi from David Sylvian to Craig Tattersall to name a few) he creates pidgin and lingua francas to record on disc.
With Uwe Zahn (aka Arovane) shares the third stage of the triad arbasinianaboth venerable masters returning from the electronic revolution, and an existential curiosity for what they define as “music technology”. It took them decades to find a common project, and when they succeeded, manipulating all the possibilities of an old synthesizer, the result was “Skal_Ghost” (12k, 2022), a vertical and deep relief of a rich and complex sound sediment; a more material Harold Budd than in the superposition of texturessampling and electroacoustic manipulations create heterogeneous environments in constant magmatic activity.
“Enth” is proposed as the second chapter of that fortunate meeting, but it embraces Deupree's need for the wavering and changes instruments, atmospheres, outcomes and roles. Arovane brings with him synthesizers, pedals, electronics and a large collection of field recording; Deupree instead limits himself to exploring the possibilities of guitar and mixing. The result is a less stratified and exuberant work than the previous one, more concentrated on the reflections and ripples on the surface of the water than on the secret life of the seabed. THE loops they are sipped, to favor a buttoned-up variety.
So while “Terr” exploits glitches velvety, floating in the pulsations of the synths, “Lake” deteriorates the guitar melody into lo-fi delay under a rain of electronics and natural sounds. “Gaun” supports the agreements with pad sandy and melancholy that darken in “Fas”, in a rarefied atmosphere of night and danger.
With its cautious nostalgia, “Enth” accompanies the elongated guitar notes between granular shocks of electronics, which in “Fiji”, illuminated by a more relaxed and luminous atmosphere, fry until they merge with the trembling games of the synths. “Cabin” is the richest song on the album, thanks to the massive use of field recording and of textures rough and shattered. “Fult” closes with its sweet and melancholy pace; the guitar counterpoints the isolated notes of a piano, all supported by a loops windy, rough and rural.
If the enthusiasm of the two is palpable, as is the fun of sharing each other, the second episode does not particularly affect us listeners, relegating us to simple observers of an alchemy that is well blended, found and well prepared, but which remains an exercise in style, a poetic dribble between two who by hook or by crook, with manners and experience, are always capable of bringing something home – without ever dropping the ball.
07/23/2026
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
