Four years ago, the California based musician r beny came on the radar with numerous videos on youtube and instagram in which he explored the world of tape and sound synthesis. You could easily see his music growing and pretty soon he came to the fore as a master in modular synthesis. This culminated in several solo releases (2018's "saudade" was selected as one of the best ambient albums of the year by Fact Magazine) and live shows (e.g. with Bing & Ruth, Suzanne Ciani). Herein, r beny, clearly showed his capacities to combine detailed and fragile melodies with subtle textures in order to create sonic narratives with a highly emotional character.

“echo’s verse” forms no exception on that regard and continues along the same melancholic lines of his previous work. However, whereas the initial albums were much more centred around feelings of loneliness, isolation and solitude, the new album clearly moves away from a sole focus on sad and distressing emotions. “echo’s verse” touches the other side of the spectrum as it is about emotional connections, bonds and not feeling alone in the universe.

Based on a quote of Mark Z. Danielewski, r beny uses the concept of Echo to explore the presence of presence: “Myth makes Echo the subject of longing and desire. Physics makes Echo the subject of distance and design. Where emotion and reason are concerned both claims are accurate. And where there is no Echo there is no description of space or love. There is only silence.”. In its essence, the metaphor of the Echo reflects communication between human beings. Hence, for r beny, the Echo paves the way for feelings of joy and hope as it delivers the ultimate proof of the presence of the Other.

When reading that specific quote, r beny immediately felt the connection with music: “If you play a simple piece of music through a delay, the original sound echoes around itself and creates a beautiful new sound. Without the echo, the sound is just by itself. A lonely sound.”. In this vein, “echo’s verse” can be seen as an attempt to represent specific emotions by investigating how the complementarity between an echo and its initial sound creates new elements of hope and joy.