As a child, my mom used to get very upset with me if I even got within two feet of our record player; which is funny to me now, because little did she know that I would grow up to become such a huge fan of record skips and static. In that sense, I guess I was only two feet away from recognizing my true potential at a very young age. Saule (aka Xavier Garcia Bardon) must have had the same experiences as I did when he was a child. The only difference is that his mother obviously let him get a little closer to the record player than mine did.
Sentimental Journey is the extremely beautiful experiment of three turntables and multi-loop manipulations that would’ve had my mom screaming for mercy, and would’ve concurrently had me scratching up all her Dolly Parton records to show just how much of a genius I truly was. Although my story may be slightly dumb, if it doesn’t signify just how far music has come over the past twenty years, nothing will.
Sub Rosa’s latest release, Sentimental Journey, is exactly the type of music I love; it’s both sorrowful and beautiful at the same time. Saule fits along side some of the worlds other premier glitch artists, and quite frankly, has released an album that gives all the others a run for their money. While the entire album is based on repetitive loops of static and feedback, Sentimental Journey is never prosaic in substance. In addition to washes of drones and static, there are unhurried elements of medicinal-like beats and billowing orchestrations. Everything, however, is looped to capture only beautiful moments without making way for the slightest amount of filler. At times, like on the song “Olé,” Saule is very reminiscent of the lo-fi works of Odd Nosdam, where everything is slowed down about twenty bpm to create the illusion of tripping on a large dose of Valium. Nevertheless, the results are both mesmerizing and hypnotically stunning.
My only complaint with Sentimental Journey is with its length. It’s such an incredible album that by the time I got to the end, I was begging for more. Clocking in at less than thirty-seven minutes, I would hope that there would be more of this music to take in, but truth be known, this is still a great little morsel to munch on for a bit. As glitch slowly continues to make its way into its own fan base, keep an eye on this Belgian turntablist. He, along with several others, will prove that my mom’s ideas of my standing too close to the record player are now invalid.
1. Hola
2. Olé
3. Lido
More about: Saule
