Return to Archive

by Matmos

Return to Archive cover art
  • Type: Album
  • Released: 3 November 2023
  • Label: Smithsonian Folkways
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 41:18
  • Community rating: 3.51/5 from 3 ratings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Commissioned to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Smithsonian Folkways, the pioneering electronic duo Matmos constructs an album entirely from non-musical audio found within the label's vast archives. 'Return to Archive' utilizes frog croaks, ionospheric signals, and spoken-word medical recordings, chopping and sequencing them into frantic, highly rhythmic IDM compositions. The project is a brilliantly surreal, conceptually brilliant exercise in pure sound manipulation.

Genres

Descriptors: conceptual, sampling, avant-garde, experimental, electronic, diverse

Tracklist

  1. Good Morning Electronics (1:05)
  2. Injection Basic Sound (2:55)
  3. Mud-Dauber Wasp (3:35)
  4. Music or Noise? (4:12)
  5. Why? (4:03)
  6. Lend Me Your Ears (3:46)
  7. Return to Archive (13:28)
  8. The Way Japanese Beetles Sound to a Rose (1:28)
  9. Going to Sleep (6:44)

Credits

More from Matmos: full discography