Unlike anything you might have heard, defying traditional boundaries of conception and space, ontologist’s latest psychedelic collection ‘Cantor’s Jam’ is a sheer sea of sounds waiting for you to fall in and discover every tiny ounce within itself seemingly endless outpour of features and moments. The experimental instrumental record is absolutely hypnotic, having you transfixed and entranced from the first staccato beat of ‘Zeptosecond’. There’s grooves all across the record, never really falling into the wholly ethereal atmospheric style. ‘Axial Cusp (That Dream 4) feels like a dream, an entire assortment of tiny sonic oddities mixed and interplayed with incomprehensible vocals that serve as a tertiary instrument.
The record doesn’t really adhere to any single style or flow throughout its runtime either. On ‘All-Beak Oz’, you’re left almost perplexed, completely bewildered by the absurdity and nonsense of it all. There’s so much happening that it’s hard to keep track of it all. You can’t really listen to it with a sense of detachment either as the beat and melody constantly throws so much more at you that you’re concentration gets fixated on each little thing that Ontologist is trying to bring to life.
If you have a ear for the wacky, an attention for the slightly more absurd and wonky, ‘Cantor’s Jams’ is bound to have you entirely amazed. There’s so much happening in this fourteen track record that it feels like a waste to not entirely jump into the world and experience it for the almost space opera that it is. You can’t help but fall in love with a track as sonically diverse and relaxing as ‘Monoshe’, nor can you not be hopelessly obsessed with the continual pattern of ‘Zeptosecond’.
A fascinating piece of experimental instrumental work from a musician who has a world of ideas in each piece.