Altopalo take their experimentalism to new heights.

 

Altopalo are an enigmatic new band opening fresh new avenues for music through their dizzying experimentalism. Now in the process of gearing up for their debut album, they’ve made the calculated decision to drop a song unlike any other; one that even the band recognises is symbolic of a turning point for them.

The song in questions is Mono. Described by the band as “the first song that dramatically changed the shape of the Altopalo creative process and redirected the sound into what would eventually become frozenthere,” Mono is representative of their shift from band-oriented music towards what they describe as “more compositionally-minded”

Mono originally started life as a moment of improvised magic at a show at the now-closed down venue Palisades in Brooklyn. Having caught the improvisation on a handheld field recorder, the group set to work surgically analysing the idea and fleshing it into the final piece. Beginning with a sparse bass note alive with overtones, it soon crescendos into a full-flowering of Altopalo’s unique wall of sound, a sound pitched somewhere between experimental music and wild collages of sound art.