Konstantin Gropper unveils one of his most captivating records: ambitious, melancholic, and propelled by lush, spectral arrangements.
“The law and the norm do not take shelter in the inaccessible realm of a secret; rather, they never reveal themselves, in the present, to anything that could rigorously be called a perception,” wrote Jacques Derrida in Dissemination (1972).
Citing the French philosopher among his many references, Konstantin Gropper could have turned this formula into the epigraph for Séance, an “gothic album” in his own words. And it was to be written in collaboration with AI. If that partner proved to be less inspired than expected, its missteps and flattery ultimately sparked new inspiration in Gropper.
Synthetic Pad Textures Make the Ghosts of the Past Speak
From tool to subject, the AI then becomes the protagonist, kneading the doubts that have long unsettled Get Well Soon’s work. The project, nearly two decades after its birth and six months after rekindling teenage fever on Minus the Magic, remains at once anxious, curious, and adventurous.
Thus, Séance shines with lush, spectral arrangements, and explores a choral dimension in The Undead Choir, conceived in a cathedral-like studio process where samples and synthetic pads give voice to the ghosts of the past. Even from cinema, with the Kubrick quote in IBM 7094 & HAL 9000 Me while The Wreck of the Deutschland bears the cadence of sea shanties and Arthur & Harry delivers melancholic crooning. Truly captivating.
Séance (Scarlet Beast Records/Virgin Music Group/Universal). Out on October 30.
