Holonomy - Vorso

To put 20 tracks — 90 minutes — of runtime on any album is an ambitious choice, let alone your debut album. But, I mean... I'll let Vorso's music speak for itself.

Because despite being a debut, Vorso here demonstrates incredible production maturity. "Holonomy" isn't just any random mashing of 20 tracks, it's a dynamic journey across a strange world that seems to bend its own rules as the progression of the tracklist continues to hone in onto its final destination. A journey across what, I couldn't say — perhaps a coastal journey of sorts, but Vorso keeps it quite abstract, and so I hand this the 'worldbuilding' tag quite hesitantly — but whatever it is, it sure sounds cohesive enough for me to believe that there is indeed an underlying story behind this — and it sure sounds pretty epic in the process. Tonal range, from the bouncy and fun "Facets" to the ferocious "Listening Post", collides with tonal consistency, and "Holonomy" takes the best of both worlds, resulting in an experience that isn't afraid to switch itself up but manages to execute those switches in a smooth, controlled fashion. Controlled can not only be applied to the album's structure, though, but also the sound design. Vorso is meticulous in his sound design, careful but knowing when to let loose and when to keep things minimal, and that applies all across the spectrum of "Holonomy" from the more intense cuts to the lighter ones, from the snare-heavy drum n bass and halftime cuts to the bouncier house ones. Sound design of this level is not something that many artists achieve, but Vorso hits the nail on the head in that regard brilliantly; "Holonomy" excels not only as a structural cohesive experience, but also as a technical production masterclass. In the sound design we see another collision of worlds — flying bright synths meet low neuro basslines — and, again, we see another blending of those worlds as smooth and mature. Well: the structure is impeccable, the sound design is impeccable, even the atmospheres are impeccable — suffice to say, "Holonomy" makes Vorso seem like an absolute wizard, and I'm struggling to find evidence as to the contrary.

There is still evidence for that contrary, though. I do wish the direction of the project wasn't as abstract, but ultimately I'm totally fine with it being abstract either way — that isn't my main issue. No, my main issue is perhaps the obvious one, that being that it is practically impossible to make a purely instrumental, collaborator-less, vocal-less 90 minute album to be completely engaging. Whilst "Holonomy" takes a good crack at it, I suspect it was a little overambitious in this regard, and some of the tracks can get lost in the vast length of the tracklist as a result. However, I do expect this to grow on me a lot as time passes, and that may not completely rid "Holonomy" of this flaw, but it'll surely alleviate it a little.