Joseph Clayton Mills, Michael Vallera: all sounds, composition
A long-distance pair exchanging tapes and bipartite artistic influences, Clayton Mills and Vallera conjure up smells of merciless decline and a somewhat rusted pluri-dimensionality in a series of meticulous assemblages that should ideally attract various categories of addressees. The district is – by and large – that of “organically forlorn” reiteration: an enriched monotonousness does constitute an indispensable factor, but the painkilling (=boring) attributes are replaced by hundreds of inherent occurrences, unclean discharges and rewarding hindrances. The initial “Dye” is, in that sense, an ideal introduction to the duo’s aesthetics. In the title track, the principles of eventful sequencing are subjected to a thorough removal of the bell-and-whistle component, the result a detached look at inaccessible universes where what’s attainable individually does not necessarily coincide with someone’s doctrine. The newsworthy issue: in spite of a crucial propensity to darkness, Maar assemble soundscapes that, more often than not, manage to communicate a representation of visible radiation (not really a contradiction, if you ask me). The furtive employment of non-synthetic materials decorates otherwise gloomy environments with minimal rays of hope in some sort of living continuance. However, segments such as “Untitled” and “S” could cause someone to reach for the oxygen mask given the high rate of acoustic toxicity in their anxiety-inducing repercussions. All things considered, Ceto is worth of hours, if not days, of genuine analysis.
MASSIMO RICCI. TOUCHING EXTREMES. 