Track By Track: Cleveland – nDSi

This month marks the release of new music on Hivern Discs, the Barcelona based record label run by John Talabot has ben a stalwart of forward thinking electronic and experimental music for many years.

Cleveland is a producer with whom many will be familiar, Andrea Mancini is a Brussels based producer & DJ, born in Luxembourg. He has released an interesting assortment of records on the likes of ESP Institute, White and Batti Batti. He has also appeared a number of times on Hivern Discs having released two EP's with the imprint across 2016/2017.

His latest release is a refocus of sorts, a chance to realign is attention and experiment with what he holds most dear. Starry and spaced out, the double pack EP see's him play with expansive textures and graceful melodic intricacies across seven tracks. It's perhaps more thoughtful and subtle than some of his previous work but equally as spirited and alluring. 

We invited him to take us through the record below:

"I’ll try to stay as abstract as possible to avoid narrative inputs since this project has no narrative starting points. It is fundamentally focused on sound itself and associations of apparent opposite textures and moods."

A1 Polar

Color ​: Pantone 7458-C

Season​: Mid-Winter (Cold / Sunny)

Keywords: ​Synthetic + Organic

In Polar I associated icy-synthetic, sci-fi with the organic, nearly biological. It nearly feels like sun melting ice into water, dripping upon cold metal.

 A2 DX6

Color :​ Pantone 130-C

Season ​: Spring (Sunny)

Keywords:​ Crystal & Sharp + Playful & Silky

The friction here is of something more crystalline, sparkly, cold and sharp whilst being warm, soft and comforting.

B1 Noord

Color​ : Pantone 1788-C

Season ​: Summer (warm)

Keywords ​: Scientific + Ardent

Noord starts with cold and steady metallic elements, creating a high tension until it releases the warm, round, flowing & ardent texture which is the melody.

C1 6IX

Color:​ Pantone 334-C

Season:​ Mid – Autumn (rainy)

Keyword:​ Enigmatic + Naive

6IX sits in the centre of the release because it is calming – the energy level throughout the track also combines awkward, strange, enigmatic melodies with the naive, scholar choices of the sound textures.

C2 Govlin

Color: ​Pantone 102-C

Season :​ Summer (rainy)

Keywords :​ Severe + Dreamy

Govlin is built on the tension between of a cold machine, it's the backbone structure. I tried to combine it with a warmer dreamy texture. On top of that there is a 3rd interaction, the pad, making the whole thing more unstable emotionally. It’s serious and dreamy at the same time. Like daydreaming whilst being in a dystopia.

D1 Kobu

Color: ​Pantone Blue 072 – C

Season :​ Autumn

Keywords:​ Mechanical + Starry

Here you find the friction between the mechanical tool and an irresistible growth of sparkles. Like hammers working on metal and creating all sorts of sparkles. It might have a mechanical feel but the textures feel pretty organic which again is one of the main themes of this double EP.

D2 nDS-i

Color :​ Pantone 388C

Season :​ Spring (rainy)

Keywords :​ Mathematical + Fluid

This track associates many key elements of the whole release, it was also the last track of the bunch that I made. Even though there was never an intention of doing a bigger extended/long play I think that I subconsciously injected all previous elements into one track. This is on the borders between something more rigid, mechanical but still fluid, naive and genuine.

Buy HERE.