Through his output both as a sound artist and through his eclectic Dekorder record label, Back to Comm (Marc Richter) has established himself as a singular voice of new music. His Thrill Jockey debut, Seven Horses For Seven Kings is Richter’s most direct and visceral work to date. It is unashamedly dark and undeniably angry. But rather than be consumed by such emotions, Richter employs them here as ecstatic release. Through his mastery of sound, he achieves transcendence through noise, beauty through intensity. A relentless sonic explorer, he approaches the studio as his instrument, using sampling, analogue production and digital manipulation to sculpt audio fragments into surprising new shapes. Samples from Richter’s contemporaries like German composer Nils Frahm are bent and compounded with elements of early recorded music and medieval song, creating pieces that transcend time and genre.

Richter blurs the lines between organic instrumentation and digital production to the extent that the two become inseparable. Seven Horses For Seven Kings was completed during a particularly prolific period for Richter. Working on a broad range of commissions since his last album - from writing for film and theatre works to composing for art installations, apps and sleep music - generated a flurry of new ideas and influences. Extensive touring would equally come to inform a key shift in Richter’s music, simulating the raw, unpredictable energy of live performances on record. While rhythm has been largely absent from previous Black To Comm releases, here the music seems totally bound to it. The album’s breath-taking pace drives Richter’s music to new levels of intensity.