D-Node 129: Jesse Somfay | Archipel + Detund

Canadian Jesse Somfay began producing electronic music in the late 90s, and his style as a producer and DJ has been marked by a love for epic, layered tracks and sets aimed at affecting the emotions. For this edition of D-Node he leads a trip down a darker route.

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We asked Jesse Somfay to share some of his favorite tracks with us. Here’s what he had to say:

Although these pieces are not within my mix, they are among my all time favourites and inspire literally everything I do. All adorers of aural bliss can attest that it is exceptionally difficult to choose a small quantity of pieces from a large selection of quality music. These five pieces are a very small fragment of my influences from long ago to imminently inspiring.

Autechre – Vletrmx21
This is the very first piece I heard from Autechre and has always remained my absolute favourite from them although I genuinely adore everything they have done to date. I first heard it in an Adam Beyer mix, in the late 90s, which I had on tape and played many times repeatedly, especially the section where he mixed in Vletrmx21. I was beyond blown away when I first heard it. It shook me to the very rafters of my core and it still does. I never cease to feel electric tingling all over my body when I listen to it and it never fails to trigger my eyes to tear up. This piece stops the world for me and forces me to be elsewhere, and I savour it immensely, that space where I may for a few moments leave this world with absolute abandon.

Sense – The World Is Yours
Adam Raisbeck is a dear and cherished friend of mine who is one of the most talented audio catalysts I have ever met. He is able to put directly into sound the deepest of feelings, from the most elegant to the most intricate and complicated. The World Is Yours is exactly as enormous and enveloping as its birth name suggests. It is the grinding heaviness of all that has existed, exists and will exist in this world, as well as all that is effervescent and bright. The perfect contrast of ‘being’ put into the form of an aurally injected caressing movement to the soul.

Grouper – Close Cloak
Liz Harris’ music as Grouper always takes me to a tremendously forgotten and ignored realm, the realm to which only the deepest, darkest rivers of dreams can deliver us. Through my experiences with those realms, I can say beyond the shadow of any doubt that Liz manages to directly catalyze into audible frequencies what these realms are made of, their very essence. Close Cloak shall always be a favourite of mine because it is direct access to my most cherished feelings within these extra realms. Hidden within all of the black and grey is a full range of colour hidden to the eyes.

Sunn O))) – Cry For The Weeper
The megalith that is Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley’s Sunn O))) is always a favourite realm of mine to enter. To make the slow and heavy procession into the blackened, frost ensconced caves that they conjure is an absolute experience. Some people drone on (pun intended) about how Sunn O))) isn’t music, but they are deathly wrong, as Sunn O))) is more an experience than anything that has ever been magnetically ordained to tape. A winter night spent alone with a single oil lamp flickering at the centre of the room and a window open letting the cold air, fragrant with ozone, slide to the floor, while this is playing, is sheer bleak bliss.

Earth – Divine And Bright
For Earth this song is extremely brief but it holds within it a white hot gem of immensity. It is one of Earth’s early songs featuring Dylan Carlson’s friend, with whom many of us are familiar, Kurt Cobain (lead vocals) as well as Kelly Canary (screams). I love bands’ early tracks as much as I love their fleshed out work. Sometimes the true gold lays within their early tapes and this one certainly is a fine example which I always shall hold dear. It is massive like a giant star, a sustained nuclear reaction in the vast infinity.

D-Node 129 Tracklist
001 John Creamer & Stephane K – I Love You
002 Traversable Wormhole – Exotic Matter (Terence Fixmer Remix)
003 O/V/R – Post-Traumatic Son (Marcel Dettmann MDR Version)
004 Tommy Four Seven – Sevals
005 Surgeon – Those Who Do Not
006 Emptyset feat. Cornelius Harris – Altogether Lost (Chris Liebing Remix)
007 Nuearz – S l o p p y M a n a g e m e n t
008 Rex Sepulveda – I-94 Detroit
009 The Black Dog – Northern Electronic Soul (Claro Intelecto Snake Pass Mix)
010 Emika – Count Backwards (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
011 The Black Dog – 93 (Berlin Mix)
012 Phresh Phantasy – Come On Acid
013 Aardvarck – Swamp
014 Somfay – All Above All (Sense Dark Rave Mix)

Selected Media:

Detund (Drumcell Remix) by drumcell