Helado Negro – PHASOR
PHASOR is a rich and absorbing record that truly transports; placing the listener in a languid, half-lit morning where you’re never quite asleep and never fully awake
Following a string of albums released via Sufjan Stevens' Asthmatic Kitty label, Roberto Carlos Lange took his Helado Negro project to RVNG Intl. before making the leap to 4AD for the release of his 2021 Far In LP. Where that record was a sprawling lockdown-crafted parade, his new album is all about the bright light and warm breeze of the world outside his door.
Pieced together in the time since Lange moved to North Carolina, PHASOR bristles with the surrounding flora and fauna, shaped by the way the light falls upon them. An endearingly tight collection, sketches for these songs were created using SAL-MAR – a complex synthesizer with ‘an old super computer brain’, before Lange fleshed his ideas out with that same meandering groove which has been ever-present throughout his storied career.
Born in South Florida to Ecuadorian immigrant parents, Lange once again presents his work bilingually and that juxtaposition fills PHASOR with an alluring magic, as if the world he is depicting is flush with colours you can’t quite make sense of. An ode to ‘grace and mercy’, PHASOR is a rich and absorbing record that truly transports; placing the listener in a languid, half-lit morning where you’re never quite asleep and never fully awake.
Listen to: LFO (Lupe Finds Oliveros), I Just Want To Wake Up With You, Es Una Fantasia