Pablo Dali

'CALIFORNIA GREY' REVIEW
Cyclic Defrost Issue #11 (2005)
by Bim Ricketson

The story goes that Matt Rösner designs farm machinery on a computer by day, absorbs the terrain of his isolated West Australian home in the evening, and at night transposes the two on his laptop. It perfectly explains the forces at work in this release – a guy separated from city and scene, as comfortable with machines and technology as he is with the bright emptiness and busy detail of nature, but with the headspace to be patient. Released as a 3” CD by new Perth label Meupe, California Grey is Rösner as Pablo Dali, three tracks incorporating ‘acoustic guitar and powerbook manipulations’ into spacious sound landscapes, each with a loping pace that requires attentive listening. Tracks are pumped with fresh air then populated with well observed detail, retaining a simple purity throughout. The first track, California Grey, begins with a recognizable guitar strum and picking, but is gradually populated by chirps, tweets and the rise and fall of an unsettling warble. I don’t see anything Californian or Grey here; I see farm stables at dusk, birds settling into nests, and the eerie quiet that slowly settles over the country as night falls. The closest thing to compare the second track Pastels to is probably Japanese artist Susumu Yokota’s The Boy and the Tree album, where sounds seem to breathe, an ancient tale unfurls and we are guided to a comfortable and natural space. If that sounds too new age for you, fear not; Dali has created a personal language of sounds and rhythm adjacent to trends and competitors. To get a copy you should probably fly to Perth. But once you have it you won’t need to visit again for a while, because you’ll have the perfect souvenir of the pace, the air and the detail of a West Coast experience.

© www.pablodali.net 2005



'CALIFORNIA GREY' REVIEW Cyclic Defrost Issue #11 (2005) by Bim Ricketson The story goes that Matt Rösner designs farm machinery on a computer by day, absorbs the terrain of his isolated West Australian home in the evening, and at night transposes the two on his laptop. It perfectly explains the forces at work in this release – a guy separated from city and scene, as comfortable with machines and technology as he is with the bright emptiness and busy detail of nature, but with the headspace to be patient. Released as a 3” CD by new Perth label Meupe, California Grey is Rösner as Pablo Dali, three tracks incorporating ‘acoustic guitar and powerbook manipulations’ into spacious sound landscapes, each with a loping pace that requires attentive listening. Tracks are pumped with fresh air then populated with well observed detail, retaining a simple purity throughout. The first track, California Grey, begins with a recognizable guitar strum and picking, but is gradually populated by chirps, tweets and the rise and fall of an unsettling warble. I don’t see anything Californian or Grey here; I see farm stables at dusk, birds settling into nests, and the eerie quiet that slowly settles over the country as night falls. The closest thing to compare the second track Pastels to is probably Japanese artist Susumu Yokota’s The Boy and the Tree album, where sounds seem to breathe, an ancient tale unfurls and we are guided to a comfortable and natural space. If that sounds too new age for you, fear not; Dali has created a personal language of sounds and rhythm adjacent to trends and competitors. To get a copy you should probably fly to Perth. But once you have it you won’t need to visit again for a while, because you’ll have the perfect souvenir of the pace, the air and the detail of a West Coast experience.

© www.pablodali.net 2005