A Way To Find The Day

On his first solo full-length proper, Stefan Schneider aka Mapstation develops a suite of slowly morphing studies for tactile electronics. Schneider is particularly sensitive to space and pacing — the eleven tracks here never break a sweat, and they tend to carefully consider a limited set of coordinates, but within that, they’re incredibly compelling. It reminds me of the Morton Feldman remark quoted by John Cage: “Now that things are so simple, there’s so much to do.” On A Way To Find The Day, simple additions feel seismic — Schneider’s bass guitar appears halfway through and the album shifts into new terrain; two guest appearances from reggae vocalist, Ras Donovan, reorient our perception, suggesting a voice coasting across a denuded landscape. Everything here hovers, fascinatingly, in the interstices — between melody and rhythm, between earth and air, between presence and absence.