Polarity
Imaginary Animals, 2023
9/10
The Brooklyn residents Pathos Trio returns with 6 new pieces for this sophomore album that showcases the minds of Ian Chang (Sun Lux), Phong Tran (MEDIAQUEER), Andrew M. Rodriguez (Close Your Eyes), Vicente Hansen Atria, Paul Mortilla, and Clara Warnaar, where much emphasis on percussion and electronic focused manipulation is appreciated.
Cheng’s “Mega Cicada” opens the listen with a distinct buzzing, where cinematic swells of dense drumming sounds and bright keys are met with plenty of atmosphere, and Tran’s “Split” follows with a dense haze of thick percussive bouts and dreamy piano.
The middle belongs to “PITY", by Rodriguez, and “Monolitos”, by Atria, where the former segues into dance floor ready electronica via the swift keys and dizzying electronics, while the latter spends 10+ minutes mesmerizing us with its sci-fi tendencies and fragmented interaction that’s quite alluring.
The final piece is the intimate and warm “Home/Gone”, where graceful keys and mesmerizing percussion surrounds the calming Warnaar original that builds into a lush, pretty finish.
The band consists of Felix Reyes (percussion), Marcelina Suchocka (percussion), and Will Healy (piano), and together they create another highly inventive and inviting body of work that presents classical ideas in modern, unconventional bursts of synthetic versus organic interplay.
Travels well with: Matthew McBane & Sandbox Percussion- Bathymetry; Timuçin Şahin’s Flow State- Funk Poems For ‘Bird’