Nuno Canavarro - Plux Quba (1988)

 

Ambient / Glitch / Electroacoustic

RIYL: The Books, Microstoria, Laurel Halo

★★★★

Nuno Canavarro is a Portuguese composer whose sole album, 1988's Plux Quba, was just brilliant enough to afford him legendary status among modern electroacoustic musicians such as Jim O'Rourke and Fennesz who continue to name-drop his influence almost thirty years later. And he deserves the praise: Plux Quba is one of those startlingly unique albums that seem to come out of nowhere, standing outside of genre trends and sounding like nothing else that came before or after.

Combining richly-toned synth squiggles with abstract samples, Canavarro brushes out a gentle sound painting that feels like eavesdropping in on an infant's dream: bright, playful shapes cautiously emerge from the otherwise empty atmosphere, intertwine with hushed, incoherent vocal snippets and quickly retreat again into the ether. At times alarming and often perplexing, Plux Quba perfectly captures that childlike sense of blinking wonder and bewilderment felt when experiencing the world for the first time.