Robin Hatch - T​.​O​.​N​.​T​.​O. (2021) Hi-Res

In February 2021, Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist Robin Hatch was informed of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to record on the famed T.O.N.T.O synthesizer at the National Music Gallery in Calgary. With only 4 days in the studio to record, Hatch emerged with a halting masterwork that shares a name with it’s progenitor: T.O.N.T.O.

A conscious attempt to exorcise deep seated baggage, T.O.N.T.O. was a self-imposed challenge to sit and ruminate on awful feelings and meditate on their place in ourselves. As a composer, Robin’s mission is to transmute painful ugly experiences like psychosis, post-traumatic stress, delusion, and hallucinating voices, into Lovecraftian minimalist electronica. The results speak volumes without uttering a word, creating a living landscape within which we find the capacity to confront and sit with the deepest roots of ourselves. Rhythmic waves of synths create movement in our pathways creating neural sensations to challenge our perceptions of ourselves. At times frantic and arresting and others in pleasing comfort, T.O.N.T.O. is an honest and raw interpretation of the id within us all.