Photo by MARK SOLOTROFF
“Frozen Gestures Under The Milky Surface” is the latest single from electronic music veteran, artist, multi-instrumentalist/noise alchemist MARK SOLOTROFF. The track comes by way of SOLOTROFF’s upcoming new full-length, In Search Of Total Placelessness, set for release on April 25th.
In Search Of Total Placelessness is an exploration of the transient, the ephemeral, and the interplay of difference that defines our existence. SOLOTROFF created this album to dissolve the boundaries of traditional spatial and temporal structures, inviting listeners into a realm where meaning is constantly deferred and redefined.
Each track embodies a fluid state of flux, resonating with the raw chill of analog synthesizers and the atmospheric depth of transmuted location recordings that SOLOTROFF made in Chicago, Milan, and Venice. These places, with their distinct sounds and ambiances, weave an intricate tapestry that grounds the music in reality, yet the album’s soundscape transcends these origins, creating an otherworldly experience.
Notes SOLOTROFF of today’s single, “‘Frozen Gestures Under The Milky Surface’ is rooted in a place that first etched itself into my memory many years ago, shaped by a sound both unsettling and quotidian. Formed at the intersection of human presence and natural forces, it carries the weight of its origins — a persistent, undeniable pulse woven into the fabric of existence there. As the music unfolds, it transports the listener into a realm where sound becomes an immersive force, tethering past experience to the present.”
Writes Everything Is Noise, “The song itself feels like it’s recorded from beyond the abovementioned veil, washed in static while familiar sounds and echoes form a near-percussive, haunting element to provide movement to the entire six-minute track. The wavering and pulsating fuzz forms a tapestry that washes over you frantically, encasing all sorts of glimpses of things that you need to decipher for yourself to comprehend. There’s ultimately very few words to properly convey the state of emotion I am trying to piece together here, so it’d be wise for you to just listen to the song itself, on repeat, to discover what it is that you personally need to discover in this very moment.”
Stream “Frozen Gestures Under The Milky Surface” at Everything Is Noise HERE.
In Search Of Total Placelessness was mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room in Chicago and will be available on CD and digital formats.
Find preorders at the official MARK SOLOTROFF Bandcamp page HERE where first single, “Immediately After Vanishing,” an be streamed.
In Search Of Total Placelessness Track Listing:
1. New Pressures Of The Endless Night
2. Immediately After Vanishing
3. Verbal Policies In Echo Chamber
4. Borrowed Structural Systems
5. Adhesion To Shadows
6. Time Overlaps Unresolved
7. Constant Flow Into Silence
8. Street Works Leading Nowhere
9. Evaporation Of Every Certainty
10. Frozen Gestures Under The Milky Surface
11. Protective Factors Slip Away
12. Floorbound Intersection
13. Rational Devices Lost In A Void
14. Tactile Effects After Touch Is Gone
15. Centrally Private Circulation
16. The Left Half Of My Body Untethered
MARK SOLOTROFF Live:
5/03/2025 Cole’s Bar- Chicago, IL w/ Burndy
6/07/2025 Richard J. Daley Branch (Bridgeport) Chicago Public Library – Chicago, IL *2:00 PM matinée w/ Exhumed Corpse + TBA
MARK SOLOTROFF‘s artwork and music focus on the development of cities, the human body’s navigation through urban environments, and interpersonal interactions, particularly in an age of digital fragmentation. As the vocalist of the doom band Anatomy Of Habit and the heavy electronic band BLOODYMINDED, and the founder of the early post-industrial band Intrinsic Action, SOLOTROFF has a longstanding presence in the underground music world. With over forty years of experience playing analog synthesizer, his synth work has been central to BLOODYMINDED and Intrinsic Action. Under the name Super Eight Loop, he recorded and released one-hundred hours of lo-fi analog synth music. His synth is also an element of the dark-ambient group Nightmares and the Milan-based post-industrial trio Ensemble Sacrés Garçons. In 2024, SOLOTROFF cofounded the synth-driven duo The Mercury Impulse with JR Robinson of Wrekmeister Harmonies, releasing their debut album, Records Of Human Behavior, that August.
SOLOTROFF has collaborated with numerous bands, contributing synth and/or vocals. His relationships range from a four-year role in Wrekmeister Harmonies to live appearances and studio recordings with artists and bands including The Atlas Moth, Azar Swan, Brutal Truth, Consumer Electronics, Indian, Locrian, Plague Bringer, Sigillum S, The Sodality, Sshe Retina Stimulants, and Wilt. His synth work is also featured in remixes for The Body, Statiqbloom, and Snow Burial.
As a solo artist, SOLOTROFF continues to focus on tenebrous analog synth music. His bass-heavy soundscapes have been described as unsettling to some and calming to others, serving as soundtracks for navigating metropolitan terrains. Starting in 2017, he released a series of recordings as limited-edition cassettes, later compiled into three 2xCD sets titled Strategic Planning. SOLOTROFF has since released the solo album You May Be Holding Back (2020), followed by Not Everybody Makes It (2021). These albums reflect on themes of isolation and loss, accompanied by self-published books featuring urban and architectural photographs that expand upon the albums’ imagery. In late 2022, he released a 2xCD set, Return To Oneself, compiling a series of digital singles and a previously unreleased long-form synth piece. SOLOTROFF released Today The Infinite, Tomorrow Zero in 2023, which he considered his most developed recording to date. His new album, In Search of Total Placelessness, will be released in April 2025.
In Search Of Total Placelessness encourages a reexamination of conventional perceptions and an embrace of the multiplicity of meaning. It allows listeners to drift into the deep, immersive layers of sound becoming unfamiliar, which explore the spaces between moments, where one may find unconventional beauty in the momentary and the ever-changing.
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