Ricardo Donoso

Ricardo Donoso, a Brazilian composer, percussionist, and electronic musician, crafts works spanning shadowy, forceful sonic architectures and ethereal ambient techno expanses. Raised in Rio de Janeiro amid the local rave culture, he honed his skills as a jazz drummer before relocating to Boston for composition studies at the Berklee College of Music. There he became a central figure in the experimental community, performing drums with improv trio the Epicureans and contributing to avant metal group Ehnahre while also scoring films. In 2008 he launched Semata Productions, an experimental imprint that issued recordings by Greg Kelley and Prurient alongside Perispirit, the noise-collage project he formed with Luke Moldof. Following a CD-R of solo percussion improvisations, several cassettes, and a 7" single, Donoso issued his first Digitalis release, the 2010 limited-edition cassette Deterrence, consisting of dark ambient pieces. The 2011 vinyl debut Progress Chance marked a shift toward brighter ambient techno and trance textures drawn from his formative listening, albeit beat-free. That well-received album preceded the 2012 double LP Assimilating the Shadow, whose extended pieces explored arpeggio-driven cosmic ambience. Digitalis also put out Perispirit’s intense Spiritual Church Movement LP the same year.

By 2013 Donoso’s output had moved noticeably toward techno, foregrounding rhythm and eventually introducing pulsating beats. Digitalis released the related EPs As Iron Sharpens Iron and One Verse Sharpens Another in 2013, with Iron/Verse Remixes—featuring reworkings by Yves De Mey, John Tejada, and Recondite—appearing the following year. Further Records simultaneously issued Nitrogen Narcosis, his first full-length under the Scuba Death alias. In 2014 he co-established the Kathexis label, whose inaugural title was his own sparse, shimmering ambient set A Song for Echo. Signing with German imprint Denovali Records, he delivered the digital EP Beginning of the Shape in August 2014. Early 2015 brought both a reissue of Deterrence and the new album Saravá Exu; Machine to Machine arrived that July. Denovali closed the year with the box set Symmetry, bundling reissues of Progress Chance, Assimilating the Shadow, As Iron Sharpens Iron, and One Verse Sharpens Another. The digital EP Saravá Exu Remixes surfaced in early 2016, followed later that year by the Quintesence EP—Denovali’s release of the soundtrack Donoso created for an installation by British artist Florence To.