Landing on Richard Chartier’s LINE after a series of releases for Flingco, Entr’acte and Notice, Chicago trio Haptic work like sculptors on their latest offering, turning synth sounds, field recordings, piano and other instrumentation into droning lower case saturations.
‘Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions’ started life as a spread of ideas, where Haptic’s Steven Hess, Joseph Clayton Mill and Adam Sonderberg prompted each other to dig into their musical history and present the records that formed their earliest memories. But while these examples helped guide the initial session at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio back in 2022, the music evolved rapidly as the group began to work into the stems, putting together rough mixes and adding new elements where needed, before removing them again. Hess, Clayton and Sonderberg kept on mixing, remixing and revising until the original compositions were “richly and subtly texture, but shorn of ornament” and the results speak for themselves.
There’s no aesthetic prettiness on show here; traces of instruments are almost perceptible at times, but everything’s been rubbed down until its source material almost vanishes. Opener ‘Proscenium’ was based on a warped tape of improvised piano, but you only really notice the fluttered chimes if you’re really tuning in. What’s more evident is Guillaume de Machaut’s resonant horn part, that the trio rearranged to match the piano. ‘Returning’ is even murkier, an orchestral moan that’s drowned beneath waves of tape hiss, and the side-long ‘Abasement’ dilates the timeline once more, punctuating the durational soundscape with subtle bass drum hits.
—boomkat.com
There’s a solemn, almost austere beauty to Haptic’s “Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions”, a title that hints at the chain reactions set in motion by small decisions – a fitting metaphor for an album born from threads of collective improvisation, then reshaped, stripped down, and reimagined. Recorded at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio, the album emerges from fragments of conversation, emailed inspirations, and the ambiance of the studio itself. The result is a hypnotic tableau where each track slowly unfolds like scenes in a film, opaque and restrained, yet rich with an almost tactile texture.
“Proscenium”, the album’s entry point, wavers between eras as a warped, improvised piano performance interlaces with a horn line borrowed from a 14th-century Guillaume de Machaut piece. This careful pairing of historical reference and avant-garde subtlety is a signature Haptic touch, weaving time and tradition into their minimalist approach. Haptic’s sound, in its reduction, feels monumental, as though the very air between notes is weighted with significance.
In “Returning”, a collage of orchestral fragments dissolves in slow-motion, stretching time to near stasis. We hear what could be a restless crowd, the anticipation of something that almost arrives but retreats at the last moment. And “Abasement”, with its bass drum punctuations, drags forward with an aching inevitability, a meditation on form and mass that seems intent on freezing time itself.
Haptic – Steven Hess, Joseph Clayton Mills, and Adam Sonderberg – began as a group of friends experimenting in Chicago in 2005, each bringing a unique voice and influence. Known for their collaborative work and atmospheric installations, Haptic’s practice has always blended sonic detail with conceptual depth. The trio has worked with filmmakers, dancers, and other experimental artists, recording everywhere from caves to dance studios, and this release feels like the culmination of that restless exploration. Like their other works – “Scilens”, “The Medium”, and “Abeyance” – “Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions” invites listeners to engage with the negative space, the pauses and breaths between sounds.
It’s an album as much about absence as presence, where listening is almost an act of participation, of meeting Haptic halfway in their strange, spatial world.
—chaindlk.com
