Shawn Mativetsky

Temporal Waves is a new project from renowned Canadian tabla player Shawn Mativetsky, transporting the tabla into a rich electronic sound world. Shawn’s tabla is bathed in the neon glow of analog synthesizers, the woozy warp of hand-manipulated tapes, and the electric patter of drum machines. Spanning crepuscular murk to widescreen elegies, Temporal Waves is an excursion deep into aural science fiction. Temporal Waves’ orientation toward yesterday’s futuristic sounds certainly isn’t superficial anemoia, it isn’t even unadulterated nostalgia. Grounded in lived experience, the gravitation toward these sonorities and images connects to the underlying themes of the album on a fundamental level. The fascination with antiquated machinery expresses a longing for the more innocent futures depicted in 1980s popular culture, a stark contrast to the nihilistic question marks of today’s uncertain forecasts. The music quietly outlines a redemptive arc, moving from the grim and very real foreboding of impending climate apocalypse and accelerationist capitalism to a more hopeful space where humanity discovers a more symbiotic relationship between nature and technology. In the Temporal Waves live show, the tabla, a pair of drums from the North of India, takes centre stage, along with the use of analog synthesizers and guitar pedals. Video projections accompany the music, adding yet another dimension to the cinematic world of Temporal Waves.