Bleep

Nicolas Jaar’s Other People label turns to the longstanding experimental world of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. Founded in 1957, the composers of PRES pushed the boundaries of what sound and music could do for half a century, documented in two volumes of highly explorative works. Volume 1 of Would It Sound Just As Bad… opens with the fairly accessible ‘Lapis’, a meditative waltz between warm and woozy synths, new age woodwinds, and electronic woodpeckers, becoming more frenzied as the composition evolves. From there onwards, dark strums, silvery waves, and ghostly contortions surge unpredictably in each composer’s adventurous works.