Sissel Wincent^SE

A techno offshoot of bass-heavy kicks, gritty sound blasts, and tangled textures, Swedish producer Sissel Wincent’s sound can be somewhere triangulated in the middle of minimalism, experimentalism, and gabber, albeit with a subtle yet highly attuned sense of emotion not often associated with such high tempos. The result: hypnosis, and the reward is profound awareness and involvement for the listener throughout. Wincent’s avant-garde approach can be traced back to her 2016 debut EP Illusion of Randomness, where processed and unprocessed recordings of streaming water, mechanics, and objects thrown into a concrete silo were used as instruments. Her second EP Inspirational Quotes followed in 2018, and her third, Assorted Lights - perhaps her most distinguished - a year later on SHXCXCHCXSH’s label Rösten. Within the range of the three and from one to another, Wincent at times uses techno as a launching point; at times she leaves it pretty far behind with an insistent minimalism consisting of little more than one-note baselines, whispered incantations (her own), or synth bursts. Whatever the case, the experience is dark and uneasy, and leaves one ready for more.