JQ & Richard Pike - Tessera

‘Tessera’ is their first official duo recording. It explores the relationship between texture, frequency and impermanence in a singular way, a fleeting stream of sound materials that float in and out of view, within seconds can appear present and demanding of attention, then to fall away into a corner at the back of the room. There is a constant feeling of connection and disconnection, an ephemeral playfulness.

This is music that is carefully sound-designed, infinite in detail but transitory. Deconstructed-dub cubism. The ancient word, ‘Tessera’, relates to the smaller pieces of a larger whole, usually stones of a mosaic, a synecdoche representing a colour-printed sheet in half-tones, a pattern made by cracks in a wall, or a visible trace of an earlier painting beneath. A pentimento effect of a drawing erased while the faint outlines of what existed below still endure. Echoes of echoes, sounds shared, resampled and small gestures repurposed to take on new meaning.