Vinyl
Actress
Karma & Desire
The seventh album from South London-based producer and experimental maverick Darren Cunningham and it's a beauty. The last time we heard from him, in 2018, he was collaborating with the London Contemporary Orchestra and improvising a score for a Stockhausen opera and he's taken an element of that work with him and married it to disorientating, otherworldly electronics. 'Karma & Desire' has a real feel of escapism, almost to the extent of feeling like an out of body experience, as dislocated and disembodied melodies float around in the ether. There are the first proper vocal collaborations he's undertaken here, but the two tracks are no pop bangers, songstress Zsela's efforts sounding more like some beguiling abstract poetry. Travelling further and further, creatively, from the normal environs of dancefloor culture, he's not lost any of his spellbinding musicality or sonic storytelling skills.