Orson Hentschel is a German experimental electronic producer who composes pieces and not songs. Not concerned with melody, Hentschel utilizes drone techniques to draw out and expose his experimental tendencies. Previously a resident of Düsseldorf, Hentschel moved to Berlin a few years ago, and Antigravity, his latest album, is a reflection of that period of moving to a new place and soaking up new influences.
Antigravity uses new production methods to demarcate the beginning of a new creative phase for the artist. Hentschel sought out analog equipment such as 1960s drum machines and the Watkins Copicat, a 1960s old tape echo, and deployed them alongside modern synths to create a blend of the analog and digital. It’s an effort to create a vintage sound, but in a whole new and modern environment, and it works to perfection.
Hentschel tells PopMatters that “moving to analog gear changed my way of composing, thinking more of the idea of improvisation and then fixing some parts for production issues without being pedantic. I see this album as a captured time frame of my own learning process, and I think the imperfection is also audible in that piece – which I’m okay with.”
Antigravity is out via the forward-looking Denovali Records.
