Gavin Russom 

'Telemetry / The Beneficent, The Merciful' 

• Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering

• Limited to 300 copies

• Screen-printed paper sleeve

Gavin Russom returns to Ecstatic sister label Entropy Trax for the fledgling label's second release. Building on the brooding atmosphere of 'The Purge / Enthroned' with a pair of throbbing, synth-powered & acid-infused cuts, the 'Telemetry/The Benificent, The Merciful' 12" draws together sonic touchstones found in Russom's many projects - Black Metoric Star, The Crystal Ark, and his work with Delia Gonzalez - melding them into two singular productions that pump and drive like the sequenced machines that power them.

Gavin Russom on 'Telemetry': "This came out of some deep digging into the abilities of one of my self-designed analog processors. I was demonstrating to someone how a second layer of filtering can turn a simple 16 step sequence into an evolving line which seems to never quite repeat the same way, sequences that don't strictly repeat but rather seem to have a life of their own that expands as their more rudimentary parts lock into repetitive motion... I built a track around it by building up layers around the central sequence that grow in impact as the track unfolds."

"The title 'Telemetry' sums up a nice connection between the machine and the body, as often it is used to track or monitor living creatures from distance. It also functions like a metaphor for what happens in a club as a DJ or musician uses the technological medium to bridge the distance between his own inner rhythms and those of the others, at a distance on the dance floor. Or at least that's how it works for me."

Gavin Russom on 'The Beneficent, The Merciful': "Although I think of all music as prayer this may be one of the most overtly prayerful tracks I've ever made. The title comes from the asmāʾ allāh al-ḥusnā or 99 names of Allah and is a phrase that opens many Islamic prayers. My mother, although not Arabic nor Muslim, was raised in the Middle East, and I grew up in an atmosphere of much celebration of Arabic and Islamic culture through food, music, art and spirituality."

"This prompted me to study Islam and its traditions deeply for some time and I found them to be incredibly beautiful, deep and poetic. There is nothing overtly Islamic or Arabic about the music, except perhaps some unconscious inspiration from Islamic devotional music that I love. I chose the title to recognize the depth of spiritual devotion and love present in these traditions and how it has inspired me. Total devotion to the divine is what I seek in my own life, and what I seek to express through my music."