Ayankoko – Rotten Faster [Ayan Records]

To describe the musical style of David Vilayleck, known artistically as Ayankoko, we must think of a highly electronic and advanced sound. His work is based on experimentation and musical research through evolved software that mainly combines Ableton Live with Max/MSP. This tool, created explicitly for the improvised and personalised development of each user, has unlimited options that Vilayleck himself guts to create all kinds of atmospheres.

His most common style is based on complex compositions, with an abstract sound design and thousands of elements that he twists until they lose their essential properties. Rotten Faster, the French producer’s latest album, shows an equally experimental nature but, this time, adds rhythmic components.

Weird and Dark opens this eight-track with a polyrhythmic structure, with many IDM details and a harmonic conjugation that could perfectly be classified as improvised jazz. With Master Roton, he once again displays an enormous dexterity in combining rhythmic elements at breakneck speed with the depth of a melody that tries to mitigate the great energy it gives off. Tree of Life sharpens the influence of genres such as funky and deep that are so characteristic of the French house scene, although Vilayleck moves it to an experimental setting. Bang Ya mixes the groove of a powerful bass with the dynamism of a percussive part that oscillates between drum’n bass and the tangled patterns of IDM.

Anemic Trees is the fifth cut on Rotten Faster and the most passive track, as the rhythm is not accentuated as in the rest of the tracks, as well as possessing a heavenly sonic nature. Seasonsored is completely rhythmic, and like Bang Ya, can be classified as an abstract adaptation of drum’n bass. Ayan Dub-Bod Mod 1 is another experimental jazz variant in which, in addition to the rhythm, there are up to five masterfully combined melodic lines divided between xylophone, viola, violin, bass and synthesised tones. Fziry Tale closes the album with a new rhythmic connection between percussion and various sounds that are harmonically executed in very broad tonalities.

Release date: April 26th, 2021.