It’s always good when an album feels like a passion project made by people with a tight bond more than just a selection of tracks – like the way Gaztween’s second album feels.
“II” feels like the kind of record made after midnight, when the city’s gone still and the only thing left moving is the low, electric pulse of ideas forming in real time. Miguel Tenreiro and Tito Romão have always worked in that liminal space, somewhere between downtempo dub, Brazilian drift, and European electronic structure; but here, the duo from Porto sound more like themselves than ever. They’ve traveled around the world and played shows at Ferro, Maracujália, and even Malmö, but “II” is the first time it feels like the travel is happening inward, into the circuitry of their own intuition.
Recorded across three intimate spaces, including Miguel’s room and Tito’s basement, the album carries the warmth of rooms where creativity is allowed to wander. Rather than an exercise of precision, these are sketches made in motion, experiments left open-ended. Gaztween talk about “intimate bonding between humans and robots,” but what emerges is less sci-fi than soul study: music that drifts meditatively through electronic textures, where every synth and glitch seems to breathe.
And just when the palette feels familiar, in come the flute and cello – acoustic tones woven through their digital fabric. “Egydio” is the first time they’ve brought these two instruments together, and it feels like a hinge moment, the acoustic world folding into the electronic one without either losing its contour. It’s really hard to do that properly – they do it with ease.
The magic of “II” is that it never insists on being a statement. It’s a process made audible – you can really hear the two friends meeting regularly, chasing the edges of influence. You can hear Saint Germain’s rhythmic ease, the orchestral lushness of ’70s Brazilian music, the quiet textural daring of Sam Gendel. But mostly, you hear Miguel and Tito building a world of their own, one late-night session at a time. Check this one out!
Stream “II” here.
The post Gaztween Releases “II”, A Collection of Ideas Bridging the Electronic and the Acoustic appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.