Berlin-based French-Irish sound artist Zoë Mc Pherson levels up on their third full-length "Pitch Blender", mangling years of experience DJing and performing live into a tight set of cybernetic soundsystem experiments that flicker between the rave and the art space. Described as a "vanguard" by DJ Mag and "fearless" by Hyponik, Mc Pherson has performed tirelessly across the world, appearing at Berlin's CTM Festival, Madrid's LEV, Malmö's Intonal and presenting installations at Berlin's Silent Green and Monom. They also curate the ambitious A/V-focused imprint SFX with visual artist Alessandra Leone and maintain creative partnerships with Jessica Ekomane and Ciarra Black (as Carbon 96).
Pulling in influence from British bass music and the outer fringes of experimental sound art, "Pitch Blender" is Mc Pherson's most ambitious album to date, splicing bold vocal performances with psychedelic modular synth flourishes, illusory environmental recordings and relentlessly abstract polyrhythmic beats. It's music that's able to balance a constant exploration for newness with a rhythmic pulse that never ignores the dancefloor, connecting the nodes between artists like aya, Elvin Brandhi, ZULI and Slikback. Cinematic and sub-heavy, "Pitch Blender" is a dizzying work of sonic fiction that's permanently in flux, dissolving breaks, beats and acidic leads into queasy, pressurized tracks that act as an antidote to contemporary malaise.
DJ mag "ZOË MC PHERSON delights in the unpredictable. On their third album, 'Pitch Blender', the Berlin-based, French-Irish artist conjures beats that spark, swerve and explode like rogue fireworks. Across 10 tracks, hyperkinetic drums reference footwork, drill & bass and the high-speed sound of singeli, but their music really operates on a plane of its own. These synapse-snapping patterns and polyrhythms are pieced together thanks to Mc Pherson's impeccable sound design, through which they build a dazzling, widescreen world out of shapeshifting synths, shadowy vocal chops and mercurial bass. It's a mind-melting formula that Mc Pherson has developed over years as a multimedia artist, producer, DJ, live performer and founder of the SFX label and AV platform. They've performed at festivals including Berlin's CTM and Uganda's Nyege Nyege, and have collaborated with artists like Jessica Ekomane, Ciarra Black, and DJ Diaki & Jay Mitta (as 3OK), bringing an exhilarating sense of invention and" ambition to every project
ZOË MC PHERSON delights in the unpredictable. On their third album, 'Pitch Blender', the Berlin-based, French-Irish artist conjures beats that spark, swerve and explode like rogue fireworks. Across 10 tracks, hyperkinetic drums reference footwork, drill & bass and the high-speed sound of singeli, but their music really operates on a plane of its own. These synapse-snapping patterns and polyrhythms are pieced together thanks to Mc Pherson's impeccable sound design, through which they build a dazzling, widescreen world out of shapeshifting synths, shadowy vocal chops and mercurial bass. It's a mind-melting formula that Mc Pherson has developed over years as a multimedia artist, producer, DJ, live performer and founder of the SFX label and AV platform. They've performed at festivals including Berlin's CTM and Uganda's Nyege Nyege, and have collaborated with artists like Jessica Ekomane, Ciarra Black, and DJ Diaki & Jay Mitta (as 3OK), bringing an exhilarating sense of invention and ambition to every project - DJ mag EOIN MURRAY
Zoë Mc Pherson’s Pitch Blender opens with a percussive storm. The Berlin-based multimedia artist’s third album crackles with cataclysmic club sounds and brain-altering beats; its precision-engineered sound design reverberates across the room like a power drill. - Dazed
With rhythms that feel inspired by library clips of boxers punching speed balls into a blur, and tones that borrow from the deadpan panic of public safety alarms, Pitch Blender demands attention from start to finish, constantly pushing notionally club sounds into experimental spaces. “On Fire” has a machine fun snare keeping time over a bassline that swoops down and holds a single note for bar after bar, as if on a dare. “The spark” nearly pulls itselft apart with the centrifugal energy of its own overlapping percussion elements. But once you’ve adjusted to the accelerated bpms of Berlin based French-Irish sound artist Mc Pherson’s internal thought processes, there’s also a wealth of detail in their sound design to sift through, which has a pleasurable intricate of texture that recalls Katie Gately. - The Wire Oli Warwick
I change shape all the time. This key sentence, located in the heart of “Lamella,” is the key to understanding sonic chameleon Zoë Mc Pherson. A lamella is a thin layer or membrane, suggesting fluidity, or the ability to shift from one form to another, defying definition. On Pitch Blender, Mc Pherson expands from gender terms to planetary terms, stating that Earth itself is morphing into a new identity: no small ambition when it comes to conceptual themes. But Mc Pherson concludes with a curve ball, throwing the entire trajectory into question. “Outside” starts like an unplugged circuit or a dying battery, making the programming obsolete, ceding space first to piano, then to footsteps and birdsong. Optimists may read this as an invitation to put down the tablet, pessimists as a sign that the world will go on happily without us. Nihilists may push it a step further, asking if these sounds were themselves computer-generated, the machines enjoying the sounds of organic matter as we once enjoyed the sounds of machines. No matter what one’s interpretation, the power of the artist’s vision shines through; a human who keeps changing can never become obsolete. - A closer listen Richard Allen
Music of the near future : “Blender” track premiere - BBC6 Mary Ann Hobbs
Berlin's Zoë Mc Pherson refracts sonic psychedelia into precarious dancefloor experiments on 'Pitch Blender', leaning into a bass-heavy multi-dimensional sound that's somewhere between aya, Amazondotcom, Ani Klang, and Metrist. Essential gear. - Boomkat
Ein zweistimmiges Glissando, das von einem Hooversound zu stammen scheint, sind die ersten nicht-perkussiven Klänge auf diesem Album mit dem passenden Titel Pitch Blender. Wobei als erste Assoziation pitch bender fast noch treffender sein könnte. Bei Zoë Mc Pherson sind in sich verschraubte Beats und schroffe Klänge eher das tägliche Brot als die Ausnahme, hier kommen kunstvoll verdrehte Frequenzen hinzu. - Groove mag
Album of the week - 3FACH
Hyperactive Techno Experiments, who know no standstill. When Zoe McPherson speaks of - Musik Express Christopher Hunold
Sound of the week - Kaltblut
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