Nicolas Zappa makes electronic music that feels closer to a mood study than a set of tracks. Working alone in his home studio, he writes, performs, and processes everything himself, pulling from years of listening to Reznor, Eno, Vangelis and the rest. His previous work scoring the horror film Rauma, 1968 already showed he could handle tension. This EP pushes deeper into that territory.
Opener “§Λ†⥍Δ” is short and queasy, a slow build of drones and glitches that feels like the first frame of a thriller before anything happens. “AηxiΞty” pulls you into that world properly, riding a thick, Moog-like bass and nervous synth accents. It has that rain-on-neon feel you’d expect in a tech noir sequence, but Zappa keeps it loose enough to avoid pastiche.
“ÐX Maつhina” is more spacious, all pads and bell tones that seem to talk to each other in their own language, while “SŸd And †he Synㅏh” flips the script with heavier drums and modular blurts that crack the surface. “عsotεric₳” is the most outright uneasy thing here, using choral swells and dissonant tones to lean into horror without going cartoonish.
Closer “Idiocracy” is the bluntest track on the EP. Chopped political speech rides a fast groove, pushing the record out of pure atmosphere into something closer to commentary without spelling anything out.
Taken as a whole, ^]x*Ð’Ý{- works best in one go, like a short, wordless film about systems closing in. It is also ready-made for sync in darker sci-fi, tech, and dystopian work, especially scenes that need pressure more than melody.
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