*200 copies limited edition* Rather inspiringly, Billy Gomberg is experiencing a career peak in his second decade of composition and improvisation. Through a practice that is humble and rigorous in equal measure, he has issued work with Students of Decay and Dinzu Artefacts alongside numerous self-released editions that document his evolving approach to modular synthesis. Though Gomberg has recently shared many longform recordings, capacity, his first proper album in four years, finds him zeroing in on nine gorgeously potent modes for the LP format.
Much like how a shard of glass can be penetrative and prismatic in the same moment, the textures of capacity exist in a space that is glowing and jagged, full of fleeting gestures but often anchoring everything with an elemental stillness. One can hear cues from the jittery glitch work of artists like Microstoria and Josh Mason here, but—and yeah, this is cliched but sincere—Gomberg’s work here is determinedly its own thing. This is music not fascinated with its own connection to the technology that facilitated it; rather, it’s in dialogue with a certain emotional and physical geography. Viewed through this lens, it makes sense that Gomberg also is a gifted photographer.
On that last note: the LP is accompanied by a striking booklet of Gomberg's black and white photographs in recent years. Your experience as a viewer and listener might mirror each other—an integration with landscape, a revealing of layers, and an appreciation of palpable beauty.