2xirtam - Quantum Worlds (2019)

The periodic table jumble codename that is 2xirtam (aka the duo of Lee Anthony Norris and Frank Rumpelt) debuted the remarkable Quantized Memories on Carpe Sonum last year, and it appears that in that time, their imaginative breadth has been fired up as if by exploding supernovae. Quantum Worlds continues those previous machinations, and to say that it’s an, uh, quantum leap forward from their opening salvo is to damn with faint praise. Who’s responsible for what across these seven tracks is unclear, and, frankly, it doesn’t matter: Norris and Rumpelt are so in sync it’s scary, seemingly able to both complement and augment each other’s textural hues to a telepathic degree. The net effect is nigh on stunning. Tracks like the spellbinding “LF Quantization” and “Quantum State” will have you reliving the glory days of Atom Heart, Eyephone, and Nonplace Urban Field, not to mention some of Norris’ golden Norken work, all of which is handily subsumed and recontextualized in the two tracks' bracing pattern ’n’ pulse. It’s a dazzling feast for the senses: sounds snap, crackle and pop, whole rhythmic intersystems are erected, arise, percolate, and iris. What results is ultimately the kind of stuff that’s always drawn the more discerning of us to electronic music in the first place, the creation of heretofore unrealized sonic universes, sensations and tinctures the ear has never previously tasted, the genesis of trompe l’oeil for the cerebellum. Here’s the real deal folks, ripe and ready for the picking.