Reassemblage emerged during the early Trump presidency, when optimism about techno-utopias and borderless networks had soured. Electronic music from the late 2000s and 2010s often foreshadowed a hangover, with vaporwave using ’80s and ’90s sounds to critique capitalism’s impact on memory. Visible Cloaks’ album sits near vaporwave but draws partly from Japanese environmental music, emphasizing presence over nostalgic distortion. After global crises including a pandemic and genocide, and the rise of “enshittification,” Visible Cloaks returned with Paradessence. The new album expands the Reassemblage approach, incorporating techniques from Lex and serenitatem, and deepens interest in the interplay between virtual and organic elements through strings and human voice.
"When the album came out, at the start of the first Trump presidency, there was a chill in the air, a grim understanding that something wicked was coming, its shape to be determined. The anticipated techno-utopia promised in the '90s, the globally connected network of trade and culture that obliterated borders, quickly soured, and a handful of coding-school barons descended to "disrupt" everything we'd done to make life bearable."
"Reassemblage sits on the periphery of vaporwave, populated with cool-to-the-touch synths, but it's also partially inspired by Japanese environmental music, which is more about tapping into the moment than steeping in weird nostalgia. (Spencer Doran, half of the duo alongside Ryan Carlile, curated the Grammy-nominated compilation Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990.) Woven through Visible Cloaks' beautiful, featherlight album was a hope for serenity, a desire for peace that never came to pass."
"Now, after a global pandemic, a genocide beamed into every pocket on the globe, and the introduction of "enshittification" to the lexicon, Visible Cloaks are back with Paradessence. It's a fitting follow-up, expanding on the Reassemblage formula while accounting for techniques learned from working on 2017's electro-acoustic mini-album Lex and serenitatem, a 2019 collaboration with Japanese ambient auteurs Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano."
"This time, the duo is even more interested in the otherworldly interplay between the virtual and the organic, rendering stringed instruments and the human voice with the glassy"
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