Rhizomes, an album by French composer Aho Ssan, evokes the rhizomatic thinking of the co-authors of an essay of the same name, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and also of the West Indian Édouard Glissant, who evolved the concept in his literary work. Rhizomatic thinking refers to a structure that is constantly evolving, in all horizontal directions, and devoid of levels, and this is exactly what this brilliant recording is all about. Artists from all over the world were invited to take part, including Chilean-American Nicolas Jaar, who is appreciated far beyond the realms of fundamental musical research. Of African origin, Aho Ssan is one of the few known figures in electroacoustic, a field generally occupied by caucasian musicians. Inevitably, Aho Ssan’s research leads us elsewhere, his hip hop and electro culture distinct, he consciously takes evocative elements from them to deconstruct them and set up a territory conducive to electroacoustic exploration. Rhizomes is vaguely reminiscent of the work of Ben Frost, Arca or Oneothrix Point Never, but we’re well and truly in Aho Ssan’s domain.
