VC-118A - Waves of Change (2023)

On his fifth album as VC-118A, Samuel van Dijk is using his evolved electro practice to explore the notion of change - a universal constant which keeps us barrelling towards unknown futures.

With 2021’s Spiritual Machines, van Dijk presented a new approach which took his established (and celebrated) sound into downtempo and experimental pastures. Now the Dutch artist builds on that premise with a clear-sighted focus on the idea of change, as forces and factors in our present moment accelerate the states of flux within our lives.

Crooked machine rhythms remain the driving force behind VC-118A, but it’s the treatment of the drums and the richly developed layers around them which tell the story. The sources are largely analogue, from a trusted bank of outboard tools ranging from 606s and 101s to ample modern and vintage effects and various modular systems, but these sounds are carefully sequenced and shaped with digital processes to create the nuanced tones and textures which envelop Waves of Change. Crucial to the spatial immersion of the album is the subtle drop in tempo, widening the rhythms and leaving room for the atmospheric sound design to have a greater impact.

The fluid synthesis and sound design which permeates tracks like ‘The Deep’, ‘You’ and ‘Replace Image’ might well be considered a sonic metaphor for the ever-shifting state of the universe, while the reliably crisp rhythmic structures applied to the likes of ‘Heat’, ‘Club’ and ’Elektri’ have a metronomic quality as steadfast as time itself.

It’s the extended immersion of ‘Motherboard’ which offers the most complete summation of the album’s qualities at the midway point, coursing through subtly vivid soundscapes guided by elegant, constantly probing drums. The snatches of voices which emerge through the mix are those of van Dijk’s parents, sampled from a discovered box of tapes from the mid-80s when they were both sound artists. Thematically, the samples also embody the sense of change van Dijk was striving for making this album, capturing a moment in time for his now-separated parents when their lives were very different.

Balancing the disciplines of machine-powered sequencing and hand-shaped sound to render his ideas in sonic form, the continued evolution of VC-118A results in another mesmerising record steeped in craft and loaded with intention.