Sotoyoto - Other Words For Dusk

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Sotoyoto’s Other Words For Dusk is a work of intense complexity and instrumental depth. It carries listeners on an intricate, multi-layered sonic journey through moments of dark sorrow and soothing peace. Sotoyoto interlaces his complex synth palette into lush, shadowy and delicate soundscapes that unfold in emotive lines.

Sonic richness is a signature of Other Words For Dusk and all of the fascinating sounds combine to paint strong auditory images as they interact in multiple ways. There are trembling strings, mournful woodwinds and indefinable sounds that evoke a vast range of emotions and aesthetic responses as Sotoyoto thoughtfully layers them. The end result is captivating and intriguing in equal measure.

A keen ear for musical contrast also sets Other Words For Dusk apart as an album. Sotoyoto works at juxtaposing moments of beauty and light with more shadowy and unsettling experiences. The way in which these differing elements interact results in a tapestry of sensations and images. Those feelings deepen the auditory storytelling to be found throughout the album.

My Favourite Tracks Analyzed

“Wanting To Fly” begins as distant, lonely sounds are joined by a smooth, delicately flowing synth swell that rises in the background. Wind sweeps through the track and soft metallic chimes float as ticking sounds also sprinkle into the music.

I enjoy the creamy sonic tide that glides like silk through the track as deep, slowly shifting bass wells up and drifts through the music. Gentler, higher sounds become an easy going float that sends relaxation through my body.

A slowly unfolding, gruff bass sound opens “Ambition.” The bass quickly moves into sweeping chords that plane underneath medium-low, easily breathing synth whorls that glide above shadowy depths. Round-sounding, lingering synth notes move over the undulating depths far below the raised synths.

The music creates  superb impression of aquamarine waters. Massive and tidally powerful bass rises as reverent synths weave into subtly uplifting notes.  An airy rush moves over slowly trembling synth that trails tendrils out over the rich upwelling of medium-high sound.

Reverence and peace pour from the gently interwoven synths as majestic, extended chords add sweeping power to the music. Higher sounds stream out through the music as vocal-sounding synths increase its reverent feeling. Deep peace and shadow touches the music as it ends on breathy air and watery float.

“Ghost In The Gong” starts out as gently swelling synth glows and a rich, woodwind sound floats out. Softly twinkling chimes and a steady, crystalline tapping also accent the music. The airy breath of the woodwind synth has a pleasing caressing feeling initially, but grows more uncomfortable as it evolves to create interesting contrast.

The glassy tapping sound is a constant, far away presence. Underneath the other elements, bass rises as pipe-like synth adds a twisted feeling. A high, steady sound adds to the vague unease produced by the trembling synth. The woodwind synth has resonances in it that are not reassuring.

Delicate, distant tapping contrasts with the hollow, pipe-like sound while bass rumbles and rushes like wind through a cavern. Vibrating, rough sounds add another layer of complexity to the music, while the pipe-like synth taking on more uncomfortable resonances. The track's cavernous low end of the track yawns wide before silence falls.

Extended, elevated sound echoes out into space in a metallic-edged drift to commence “Labotari_A.” Thin synth drifts as massively heavy bass drops in below it along with a steady, medium-high sound that grows out into the wide sonic planes around it.

A lost, piano-like note briefly sounds as resonant bass adds more weight to the music. Higher sounds stream off into space like vapour trails behind a comet. The low end of the track has a cosmic majesty to it that I enjoy as ethereal synth moves with a diaphanous breath around it. Gigantic bass rumbles far below to lift the other auditory elements. A sense of vast, velvety blackness pervades as chiming notes play a melodic fragment with melancholy through it like a fine thread.

Soothing breezes sweep as forlorn, metallic notes hover and a towering wave of powerful sound adds immense depth. The rumbling bass tide sweeps the track out along with the elevated synth's floating emptiness.

“The Starmaker” starts off as fragile, string-like notes and an ethereal vocal sound drift in. Darkness and distant pain tinge the music as feathery synth moves in waves.  A xylophone tremulously plays tender notes while the faint hint of something worried adds a nice contrast.

Smoothly lapping, string-like synths add a fluttering feeling while dense bass wells up with shadowy power and synths reminiscent of contrabass and cello add a woodsy depth. Vocal sounds combine with a minor key twist to introduce a vaguely unsettling feeling before soft wind sweeps the music away

Smooth, feather light synth glides out in softly touching notes that move through “Hakub” with a trembling touch. Clarinet adds lush depth and nasal roundness to the music as a higher sound intertwines with it. The low end has the dark tones of a bass clarinet moving in waves that shape the music. There’s increased tension as shadowy sounds surge and intersperse with more tentative sections.

Reverberant strings create a rapidly dancing pattern, imbuing the music with propulsion. A hammered dulcimer sails in, playing a melody full of evolving drama and sparkling motion. Woodwinds and strings create a textural energy as brushing percussion adds more motion. Rapidly, lusciously rippling piano adds another sonic layer, the interwoven notes full of a constantly dancing life.

A darbuka or similar type of drum taps in and elevated dulcimer sounds trickle high above. Intricate strings are cut by bright trumpets and massive bass rises below the shimmering, interlacing higher notes. The percussion has drive as cello adds angular motion. The densely interlocking complexity of this track captures me and draws me in.

“White Flame Pyre” opens as wobbling, droning synth moves through while winds blow and deep bass vibrates. Medium-high, gruff edged synth wanders in a mournful melodic pattern as digital sounds shiver in flickering lines. Deep bass with a round sound rises to support the other elements.

Now a poem is recited, a poem written by Sotoyoto. The poem’s beautiful imagery unwinds in a recitation by beat poet Meh Toole. While the depths swirl and rise, dark notes with a mournful feeling lend more weight to the music as rippling synths scamper through. A solemn bass sound gives strength to the low end of the track, as sere winds guide it into silence.

The imagery and wordplay in the spoken word part elevate this song. The narrator talks about how the “white flame burns bad things” and lyrically describes it in phrases like “turns mourning into dusk” and “lingers long like lovers after lust.” Our narrator talks about the fire between our head and our heart, describing it as a “white glow burning powder-ashed & tinder-piled.”

It results in the things of sadness becoming “cinder riled.” He says that when the white flame burns “everything must go, even things you’re scared to know” and the thoughts never to be shown. The storyteller ends by talking about performing a ”hurting throw of stacking ills to set alight and burn on white flame pyre.”

Rough, twisting and wide-sounding synth grumbles in shifting lines that move into open space to kick off “Saddest Hill.” Higher, melancholy sounds ring out in the background, slowly moving into prominence as the gritty soundscape growls beneath them. The music is evocatively aching and full of forlorn feeling as the richer synth chords add depth.

There’s a pained sensation here, tempered by something soothing. Despite gruff edges, the underlying warmth of the notes leavens the tragic sensibility of the music.  Intertwining synths create microtonal moments as they move. There’s a melancholy yearning permeating the music ending on one long, majestic chord that fades to silence.

Conclusion

I’ve come to view Other Words For Dusk as a symphonic work. It goes beyond ambient music into territory that I’d associate with Romantic composers from the perspective of creating sublime music. By sublime, I mean the sense of a terrible beauty that is both awe-inspiring and emotionally challenging. I have been mightily impressed by what Sotoyoto has done here. To learn more about, Sotoyoto visit him here.