The Cyrillic Typewriter “A Sinister Glass”
The Cyrillic Typewriter doesn’t create music, it harnesses it. In many ways, Jason Zumpano is a diviner who walks amidst our physical world in search of sonic textures hidden away. Whether locked below Earth’s surface or floating above us in space, Zumpano (joined this time out by fellow Destroyer alumna Scott Morgan, Nic Bragg and Terri Upton of Frog Eyes) pulls these energies towards him. He lets their currents flow through him, change polarity. On Your True Emblem, the tiniest of ideas takes up vast amounts of space, and yet it never seems to be enough to contain his creativity.
Your True Emblem is a collection of 15 minor movements, in so much as they’re brief. The longest, “Evening Mirrors”, just shy of five minutes, is a soothing, vibrating, minimal lullaby. The shortest (opener “Slicing The Black Wave” and “Statue With Eyes”) are barely 30 seconds long, but have just enough time to buzz through, shift the mood, and take the album off in another new direction.
There is an intangible spirit haunting Your True Emblem. It’s not something you hear as much as you feel. In the space between notes and the silence between sections you’ll find the Cyrillic Typewriter’s true essence. This is not passive listening. Zumpano and his collaborators don’t make easy listening music, but Your True Emblem is certainly worth the effort.
