Unity
Muse-Eek, 2021
8/10
The duo of Bruce Arnold and Judi Silvano, as Sonic Twist the pair are kind of jazz, sort of electronic and undeniably experimental as Unity is intimate, spontaneous and quite peculiar in all the best ways.
“A Ha” starts the album with vocal effects from Silvano as Arnold’s guitar provides ambience to the soft and adventurous opening, and “Capricious” follows with charming scatting from Silvano while warm guitar lines complement the landscape.
With 17 tracks included, there’s a lot to digest here, but the pair keep the scene diverse with the dreamy “Lacewing”, while “Hovercraft” nearly approaches sci-fi territory in its hypnotic execution. “Ha”, a particularly unusual track, is then full of vocal acrobatics amid a light buzzing that’s as playful as it is eccentric.
Deeper down the line, “Shaman’s Plane” adopts a futuristic quality alongside frisky supercollider effects from Arnold, and “Compression Expansion” exits the listen with curious echoing in a finish that seems like it could soundtrack a campfire in another dimension.
In an act of inventive marketing, Sonic Twist released a video for each song, providing a visual component to this very artistic and iconoclastic twist on jazz meets electro-rock that’s so daring, you can’t help but admire it.
Travels well with: Judy Stuart- The Apostolic Session; Jason Kao Hwang-Human Rites Trio