True to its title, Roland Tings’ newest collection is sparkly and shined to perfection. To create this album, the Berlin-based, Melbourne-native producer worked through an obsessive routine where he repeated the same simple actions every day, like the route he took the studio or what he ate for breakfast. This structure aided the keen editing attention to detail present on Each Moment a Diamond.
The wordless tracks melt together, the beats meditative. In an interview with Self-Titled Mag, Tings described single “Slow Centre” as “a seven-minute ride in a cloud. The sound of being hit by lightning. An ode to the pioneers of hypnotic minimalism. A lo-fi computer generated image of a xylophone rendered in eye-splitting high definition.” His poetic descriptions of his own music are the best way to envision what he’s created with this latest release; the tracks resonate on a deep, primal level where they feel applicable to both everyday routine and otherworldly illusions.
As the only song with vocals, “Higher Ground,” featuring singer Nylo, serves the same purpose as seeking safe harbor in a deluge. As she sings about having and then losing everything, Nylo’s ethereal and airy vocals complement the fantastical imagery that Tings’ production evokes. It’s a beacon of security and certainty in an EP that otherwise challenges the perceptions of reality with its amorphous borders and dream-like repetitions. Tings may have been going through the motions while writing the EP, but Each Moment A Diamond reminds us of the beauty in perpetual action.
