Gintas K’s latest release, "Mountains, runlets, caves & cascades", is an audacious venture into the depths of digital soundscapes, recorded live in one go, without any overdubs. This Lithuanian sound artist, known for his Fluxus-inspired performances and granular synthesis, offers an album that is as enigmatic as it is evocative, drawing from the macabre musings of H.P. Lovecraft to craft an auditory journey through an eerie, otherworldly terrain.

The album opens with "Mountains, runlets, caves & cascades #1", a piece that immediately plunges the listener into an unsettling atmosphere. The use of a computer and MIDI keyboard as the sole instruments creates a sterile yet dynamic environment, where electronic pulses and dissonant tones seem to reverberate from the dark recesses of an alien landscape. This track, like the ones that follow, shows Gintas K’s skill in manipulating digital sound to evoke a sense of place and narrative.

Track two, "Mountains, runlets, caves & cascades #2", continues the exploration with a slightly more structured approach, introducing small, almost melodic elements amidst the chaos and before the pounding final hits of a sort of heavy clang. This is where Gintas K’s background in industrial and electroacoustic music becomes apparent. There’s a method to the madness, a meticulous layering of sounds that, while initially jarring, reveals a complex, underlying rhythm upon closer inspection.

"Mountains, runlets, caves & cascades #3" and the lengthy "#4" push the boundaries of this sonic riding, creating a space where time seems to stretch and bend over cycles of continuously aggregated and disaggregated granular sounds. The latter, at nearly 15 minutes, is a slow burn, building tension through repetitive, droning motifs and gurgling electronic chirps that give way to sudden bursts of streaming noise. It's like wandering through a labyrinth where each turn reveals a new, unnerving sight.

The fifth track, "Mountains, runlets, caves & cascades #5", is perhaps the most accessible, if such a term can be applied to Gintas K’s work. It flirts with recognizability, offering glimpses of paroxysmal musicality before dissolving back into abstraction. Here, the influence of his collaborations with other sound artists and his experience in creating music for installations and films shines through. There’s a cinematic quality to the sound design that evokes vivid, albeit unsettling, imagery.

"Eastern bells", the final track, stands out with its use of bell-like tones that add an almost ritualistic feel to the album's conclusion, being its general mood the one that maybe better matches one of three sentence by Lovercraft quoted by Gintas to give a sort of conceptual framework to this record: "It was a godless sound; one of those low-keyed, insidious outrages of Nature which are not meant to be. To call it a dull wail, a doom-dragged whine, or a hopeless howl of chorused anguish and stricken flesh without mind would be to miss its most quintessential loathsomeness and soul-sickening overtones" (extracted from "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward").

Comparatively, Gintas K’s work can be seen as a more visceral, raw counterpart to the polished, algorithmic compositions of artists like Autechre. Where Autechre’s music often feels like a meticulously coded puzzle, Gintas K’s soundscapes are more akin to the chaotic, unpredictable forces of nature. There’s a sense of immediacy and presence in "Mountains, runlets, caves & cascades" that sets it apart from more studio-bound electronic music.