Cerpintxt – ‘microtubule encoded memory’ [EP] [Album Review]

The title – microtubule encoded memory – of the new EP from Cerpintxt refers to the theory of how the human brain stores memories, which in turn impacts the concept of consciousness. Thus, Cerpintxt’s music, or sonic mirrors, are, literally intended to allow listeners to hear their own souls.

Talking about the project, Cerpintxt says, “‘Microtubule encoded memory’ is a long-form study in systematic harmonic erosion, materialized within a wall of cascading and spectrally smeared vocal layers, retrograding guitar pulses and speech-driven composition.”

The EP will be released in stages and on different media, with the title track and last track, “dweller in the eye,” releasing on September 18 and the second track, “operator of division,” to be released as a sort of special edition on cassette tape on October 30.

Self-described as a dark jazz hauntologist, Cerpintxt utilizes auto-destruction, phonetic entropy, and augmented instrumentation. The textural counterparts of her sound rely on wind instruments, broken turntablism, prepared zither, seismic microphones, generative composition, tape recorders and modular synthesis.

The intro to the title track summons up suggestions of Gregorian Chants flowing into suspended, almost spectral tones akin to whale songs. Soft whispering vocals enter, accompanied by hurdy-gurdy-like, drifting auras that eventually lead to a ghostly jazz-tinted piano, evoking a welter of dreamlike emotions and memories lost in the mist.

A distant moaning voice appears, floating, giving the song the feeling of incipient melancholy, followed by descending into a dark, elegiac piano.

Cerpintxt, photo by Liminal Warp

“dweller in the eye” consists of remote, not quite jarring voices atop a languid piano and layers of recorded sounds, resulting in arcane sonic constructions, simultaneously diaphanous and abrasively industrial.

Mysterious and inscrutable, frail and vulnerable, microtubule encoded memory conveys listeners into a realm lacking linear thought.

microtubule encoded memory Track Listing:

1. microtubule encoded memory
2. dweller in the eye

Run Time: 26:23
Release Date: September 18, 2023
Record Label: Independent