Black to Comm

Listening to Black to Comm feels like stepping into a dream where the past is being physically reconstructed from fragments of sound. Marc Richter uses scratchy old records, field recordings, and unconventional percussion to create a world that is simultaneously beautiful and unsettling. It is music that breathes with the hiss of old tape and the rhythmic click of a locked groove, turning historical debris into something majestic and new.

What sets this project apart is the 'darkly magical' quality of the arrangements. Unlike static ambient music, these tracks are alive with surrealist detail: a snippet of a vaudeville singer might emerge from a thick cloud of organ drone, or a 'kitchen gamelan' might provide a metallic, jittery pulse beneath a shimmering wall of sound. It is an exercise in sonic archaeology, where the dirt and damage of the source material are just as important as the melodies themselves.

For those new to Richter's work, Alphabet 1968 is the essential starting point. It perfectly captures his ability to blend the nostalgic warmth of old recordings with a cold, ominous undercurrent. It is best experienced with headphones in a quiet room, allowing the dense layers of texture to fully envelop your senses and transport you to his strange, parallel version of history.