With “One”, Zurich-based performer and artist Rosenkranz introduces a project that feels less like a conventional debut and more like the opening page of an ongoing sonic diary. Released through Petite Victory Collective, this four-track EP marks a new chapter for Matthias Rosenkranz, formerly active under the name 59 Perlen, and establishes an identity built around process, experimentation and the physical relationship between machines and space. It is an introduction that does not rush to explain itself. Instead, it invites the listener into a particular moment and lets the sound do most of the talking.
Across its four pieces, “One” moves through ambient, drone, noise and restrained rhythmic experimentation, maintaining a remarkably tactile character throughout. These compositions originate from live hardware jams, and that origin remains audible in the best possible way. There is a sense that the tracks have not been polished into something overly perfect, but preserved as traces of real-time interaction between performer, instruments, room acoustics and intuition. The resulting textures are warm and organic, sometimes almost fragile, even when the drones begin to acquire greater physical weight.
The rhythmic dimension is particularly interesting because Rosenkranz rarely treats rhythm as a conventional driving force. Instead, percussion and pulses appear as gradual shifts in density, creating movement inside otherwise suspended environments. The Oxi One and Elektron Analog Rytm contribute a subtle mechanical presence where used, but the beats never dominate the surrounding atmosphere. They behave more like distant signals or changes in pressure, allowing the music to remain spacious while preventing the longer passages from becoming completely static. It is rhythm understood as texture rather than destination.
Synthesizers and effects are central to this approach. The combination of hardware across the four tracks gives “One” a broad but coherent sonic vocabulary, from the Elta Solar 42F and Neutral Labs Elmyra 2 to the Soma instruments, Korg NTS-1 MKII and Walrus QI Etherelizer. Rather than showcasing the equipment itself, Rosenkranz uses these machines as extensions of the improvisational process. Oscillations stretch, tones dissolve into one another, and electronic details appear and disappear with an almost organic unpredictability. The sound design consequently feels physical, as though the listener is hearing an environment gradually changing shape.
“Two” and “Three” in particular reinforce the EP’s fascination with suspended motion, while the surrounding tracks contribute different shades to the same conceptual framework. There is no obvious attempt to force dramatic peaks or conventional songwriting structures. Instead, Rosenkranz allows small changes to carry significance. A pulse arriving after a long drone, a slight alteration in timbre, or a sudden widening of the stereo space can become an event. This patient approach gives the music room to breathe, rewarding listeners who are willing to stay inside its slower rhythms.
What makes “One” convincing is the relationship between intention and spontaneity. Rosenkranz clearly understands the instruments and the possibilities they offer, yet the performances retain enough uncertainty to feel alive. Every track can be interpreted as a documented state: a temporary meeting point between preparation and accident. That idea gives the EP a quality beyond simple ambient background music. These pieces feel like records of thought expressed through electricity, vibration and space.
The project also makes sense within Rosenkranz’s wider activity. As founder and host of Synth Club and the monthly Zürich Synth Table, he has helped cultivate a local environment around electronic music and hardware experimentation. “One” carries something of that communal, exploratory spirit, even when the finished recordings are intimate and solitary.
For a debut, this is an assured and unusually tactile statement. “One” does not attempt to overwhelm; it absorbs, observes and gradually reveals its character. Rosenkranz has created a high-quality EP that comfortably occupies the space between ambient stillness, drifting drone and quiet rhythmic density. We are happy to host this release on our webzine, and even more interested in what these first four traces might lead to next.
