In their debut EP "Ellipse", Swiss duo Plasma D’arc - saxophonist NikolaJanGross and electronic producer GaspardGigon - forge a molten alloy of wind, machine, breath, and glitch. Recorded in March 2024 at LaMaisonMatrice in Crémines and released on tape, this six-track suite is a slow-motion lapse into metallic magma, ever-shifting yet rooted in Swiss craftsmanship.

Gross, hailing from projects like JunKnik and InuitPagoda, brings a raw, expressive voice through sax and bass clarinet, often curled in feedback and effected loops. His playing is not flashy but deeply textural, with guttural breaths and clicks anchoring each phrase in the corporeal. Meanwhile, Gigon - co-founder of the boundary-breaking label Sbire and known for his club and improvisational projects - lays down electronics that feel less like beats and more like tectonic plates shifting under gravity.

Across the six movements - "Hélice", "Phase Solide", "Maille Primitive", "Ligne Triple", "Onyx", "Flamme Plasma" - Plasma D’arc orchestrate a transformation: percussive tap-taps melt into sustained hums, squawks devolve into droning monoliths, and chanted vocal samples emerge like fossil echoes in this sonic stone.

What captivates is their shared sense of form. This is improvisation, yes, but guided by a sculptural patience: layers coalesce, diverge, then coalesce again. "Phase Solide", for example, feels like ice forming around a warm ember - cool rigidity containing inner glow. By contrast, "Flamme Plasma" ends the EP on a cheeky spark, a flickering ember refusing to go silent.

Gigon and Gross met in 2023, and their chemistry is immediate - machine and reed breath into each other, twisting time and matter into an elliptical vortex. The tape format intensifies the effect: hiss and saturation become features, not flaws - a reminder we’re listening to something handmade, raw, analog.

If you love sound that resists easy categorization - where jazz, noise, ambient, and glitch bleed into one another - "Ellipse" offers a bold portal. It doesn't want to be comforting; it wants you to listen with your spine, not your feet. And for a debut, it's a powerful statement: Plasma D’arc may be new, but their chemistry feels preordained.