According to his Discogs page, Charles Lareau hails from Green Bay, Wisconsin and is now based in Hangzhou, China. I was unfamiliar with his work, but the liner notes credits Lareau with "tapes and electronics," so I had some sense of what I was getting myself into. These tracks were recorded in 2021 & 2022 in Shanghai, China. Let's dive in and see what we have here.

We open with "aixst00," which is gritty machine noise. Imagine running a two-stroke engine though a series of effects and you get a sense of what you are in for. "Transistor" is heavily processed warbling static and analogue tones. I like the rawness of this and there is a minimalism here that is engaging. Finally, "algosphere" keeps the minimalism going with a lot of drone and ambience. If you are looking for atmosphere, this is where you will find it.

Flipping the tape over, we begin with "0II0I," which is an interesting mix of field recordings of singing and music buried under a wall of tape hiss and other noises. "Airwaves" is a short piece that brings some noise, with a repetitive static crunch and high-pitched radio noises. Finally, we close it off with "trajectory," which at 13:06 is the longest track on the release. The track kicks off with a static blast, but then quickly relaxes with some peaceful drone. This has the feel of being done in real time with one take, as there are sudden shifts at times. This settles into a heavily distorted drone piece that constantly evolves and shifts over time. Bits of static hiss come along for the ride and then vanish, tapes sounds like they are getting eaten for a brief moment, and suddenly it is over.

This is one of those nebulous releases that are a bit difficult to categorize. It is noisy, but not really noise. A bit too noisy to be ambient though. But it is very well done and a nice listen. Lareau manages to keep everything interesting by not getting too bogged down in formula. If you like tape experimentation with a lot of processing, this will be up your alley. Well worth checking out. This release weighs in at around 40 minutes.