Aries Zaes – Dust (2023)

Published 2023 PreferMusic
Marcel Zaes, Annie Aries

Silica, ashes, PM2.5, flour, carbon, titanium, lens; green sweep, mist, mask, crumb, cold, laser, listing. Dusts– innocuous, potent, dangerous and foundational, easily combined. These smallest parts swept into rhythm, dampened to basses, sifted to melody. Humble debris no more, past remnants are refined and unmitigatable. Aries Zaes make an understated, potent return with DUST. Prior debris has ground and sifted into forms that no longer require distinction, and carry great power in their subtle shifts. The rhythms are inescapable, the bass carefully tuned, and melodies billow through new form.

—Eli Backer, professional helicoil installer

About ‘Dust’ and the group ‘Aries Zaes’
After “Debris” (Prefermusic, 2020), “Dust” is the second album by the electronic music duo Aries Zaes. Annie Aries and Marcel Zaes met in the circles of the Bern Academy of the Arts as they were pursuing their sound art degrees. They decided only years later that a sonic artistic practice might need a counterbalance, which they decided is a four-to-the-floor aesthetic that is danceable and comes with its own drive, and yet enlivens analog textures made from noise and otherwise normally “inaudible” matter. Similar to its predecessor, “Dust” is recorded on an assemblage of both historic and contemporary sound modules and synthesizers, including the Arp2500, Moog DFAM and Mother 32, Roland System 500, Korg MS20, Doepfer System 100, Korg Volca Series, and a custom assembled modular system with Make Noise and 4ms modules among others. “Dust” hence continues Aries Zaes’ fascination for mixing new and old, high and low tech, analogical and digital – a blend that materializes across rhythms, textures, colors, and “feel.”

All music was written, recorded and produced by Annie Aries (anniearies.com) and Marcel Zaes (marcelzaes.com) on historic and contemporary analog synthesizers including Arp2500, Moog DFAM and Mother 32, Roland System 500, Korg MS20, Doepfer System 100, Korg Volca Series, and a custom assembled modular system with Make Noise and 4ms modules among others. The build of the musical structures is inspired by Rick Snoman’s Dance Music Manual (Routledge 2013) and by tons of YouTube tutorials by wonderful practitioners.

Thanks to Brown University, Bern Academy of the Arts, and SUSTech School of Design Shenzhen for letting us play their valuable instruments. This album was made between 2018 and 2023 in Providence, Boston, Bern, Frankfurt, and Shenzhen.
Mixing & Mastering: Ramon Bischoff, nomar.ch Artwork: Sandra Schmid, schmiderei.com