Locked Grooves

Julian Sartorius | Locked Grooves - LP

Release date: 16.07.2021

Julian Sartorius aims to test infinity. Focussing on reduction and repetition, the versatile artist, drummer, and percussionist, has recorded an album capable of suspending time: "These highly condensed compositions should be explored like landscapes: distinct places defined by the forces at play." Exploring the potential of a repertoire performed under rigorous conditions and regulated by a loop length of 1.8 seconds, Sartorius responds with a disciplined focus on tonal nuances, micro expressions and shifting time signatures.

The 112 locked grooves of this album — or 112 one-minute loops on the digital release — unveil an abundance of rhythmic forms, some vigorous, some frail, others impulsive, alluring, and adrift. Sartorius' precise, multi-layered rhythmical patterns are incisive excursions into the hidden tones of found objects and prepared instruments, concise arrangements which bridge the gap between sound art and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music.

On 'Locked Grooves' Sartorius interrogates the idea of a 'static' groove, unfurling an endless, meticulously gradated percussive suite. This is the point at which intangible structures materialize, becoming four-dimensional, sculptural, solid. Sartorius explains: "I hope listeners will experience these compositions like they would explore a painting at a museum - letting the work unfold in depth, revealing layer after layer."

Julian Sartorius has made a name for himself with a series of extraordinary conceptual projects: "Morph" was a 7.5 year-long series of 8-second audio loops combined with handmade imagery, eventually incorporated into a 5-hour film, while the 12" LP box set "Beat Diary" comprised 365 beat tracks, each of them recorded daily, irrespective of any surrounding circumstances.

Julian Sartorius has collaborated with a diverse, illustrious circle of musicians and producers, including the likes of Sophie Hunger, Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga, Vanishing Twin), Matthew Herbert, Sylvie Courvoisier, Gyda Valtysdottir, Dimlite, Shahzad Ismaily and Dan Carey (Speedy Wunderground).