Phase Space: Degrees of Freedom review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

(Phase Space)
Switching wonky techno for spacious abstraction, Gwenan Spearing debuts a new alias on an EP of uncanny generative electronics

After establishing herself as a techno DJ in some of the wonkiest corners of underground dance music, Gwenan Spearing has spent the last few years settling into slower, more abstract territory. Alongside her club sets, she co-organises an ambient deep listening series in Berlin and spends her spare time experimenting with modular synthesis. Phase Space is the latest expression of this interest, a project rooted in generative electronics and real-time responses.

Degrees of Freedom is Spearing’s first outing under this new alias: an EP of meandering ambient tracks that blur the lines between electronic and acoustic as instruments are sampled, warped and overdubbed through her synthesiser. On the subaquatic opening track Sync, cowbells are stretched and delayed beyond recognition against a pulsing analogue rhythm. Towards the end of Some Pluck, a dense shimmer almost sounds like steel pans, but you get the impression it’s something more elusive.