One could count in the triumphs of capitalism the way it exploits and recycles the escapism of those suffering under its regime. Specter, Spectrum, Speculum is an album about such haunting thoughts, as well as other things that seem impossible to escape. It is an introspective fold, a mass of fluffy darkness collapsing through internal suction, an osmotic process of alienation, affirmation, and coping with it all.

The album belongs in the wide range of media-based practices that comprise Babak Ahteshamipour’s artistic output, which include painting, video art and digital art. As such, it is part of the same universe of cultural references, appropriation, critique, and irony that characterises his work in general. Central in Babak’s work is the way he negotiates violence and trauma — such as the anxieties of environmental collapse, neoliberal economies, western supremacy, and war — through mock playfulness and jest. In his visual work, he appropriates references from pop culture to conceal feelings of sheer terror under a neurotically splashed veneer of funny. To the same effect, he appropriates in his music the tropes and aesthetics of feel-good video game music, twisting their soothing familiarity into moods that span from ironic ennui to sugar-choked despair.

Specter, Spectrum, Speculum is full of electroacoustic experimentations that draw from the aforementioned sources, as well as sampling of acoustic instruments, and particularly extended piano techniques. Heavily improvised in almost its entirety, the album is a series of linear, open-form compositions that steer away from more structured forms. Percussive rhythmicality, ambient soundscapes, and distortion create a rich musical landscape, whose uncanny amelodia reinforces the overall sense of uneasiness and brooding anxiety. Meanwhile, the spine of the album’s opening, middle, and closing tracks is vocals by Babak himself, singing and reciting his own cryptic texts.

Speculum is the Latin word for mirror, but is also the name of a medical instrument for the examination of bodily orifices, and more commonly the vagina. We could therefore listen to this album as an internal examination, as if a hardened carapace is turned inside-out like a glove to reveal the throbbing softness of a dark interior. Playfulness is the key concept here, only not as in a game that is meant to please, but to unsettle. It’s about orchestrating a comical war of chubby Boos, but also revealing that sometimes, harmless specters are made to seem as dangerous as war itself. Essentially a self-portrait as much as a reflection of the world today, the album presents us with a mysterious toolkit for interpretation: a ghost, a mirror, and a field of possibilities.

Text by Kiriakos Spirou