Over a year ago, long before Stranger
Things became the nostalgia-trip phenomenon it has, Cloud Bank released a
spring batch that would have dropped like a ton of bricks on the masses
suddenly salivating for synthesizer excursions. But that was 2015, and we’re
about to roll into 2016 Q4, leaving the bean-counters scratching their heads as
to why no one’s talking about Tönen’s Long-Term
Stasis Music, a gorgeous sheen of far-out synth tones and dopamine
producers. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen, because I’m going to talk
about how awesome this tape is, even though we’re certainly reaching critical
mass on such releases. I mean, even the AV
Club posted a guide to synthwave! The AV Club! They might as well be Spin. That’s OK, though, if it sheds
some light on the little guy (and it barely does, but whatever). Regardless,
Tönen’s ability to process interstellar transmissions gains him access to the
inner circle, the Stonecutters-esque secret organization of synth maestros that
meets in buildings referred to in hushed whispers as “temple.” Within, they
build new temples upon solid foundations of tone, sculpting their auditory
monuments to occult deities, or maybe just to the monuments themselves. Making
music to create monuments to create music to. That’s more like it. The S U R V
I V E guys would be proud. Probably anyway – although I think they prefer
building sensory-deprivation chambers, in which case they’d still get along
with Tönen just fine.
(Oh, and by the way, Tönen, your fancy umlauts don’t fool me – I know
you’re from Portland, Oregon.)
--Ryan Masteller