Zonra - The Folded Road

Zonra – The Folded Road [RUST081]

$7.00

Follow on: Instagram, Facebook
Listen on: Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music

---

Across our list of affiliate producers and friendly creatives, Jackson Hale continues to deliver pristine polish and professionalism through his Zonra project. Across the arc of his aural evolution, the staples of the Zonra palette have gradually taken on clearer compositional heights, with yearly successive releases driving home the developing narrative within Hale’s musical vision. Once again, we find ourselves excited and honored to platform the latest collection of minted Zonra works and his 5th release with The Rust; The Folded Road.

Consisting of 7 tracks written and produced across a  6 year span on the road, The Folded Road offers a variety of snapshots into the effusive stages of the Zonra sound. Resting primarily in the down tempo wheelhouse, every song features the techy ambience at the core of Hale’s signature style, while perusing both gentle and hard-hitting percussive backdrops across the record. Throaty synthesis and distorted, reverberant pads mingle with delicate pops and transient downbeats in the same simmering dish, dovetailing the early in-roads of Hale’s discography with the contemporary shape of the Zonra catalog. For fans and appreciators of compositionally-driven, emotive electronic music, your next pocket of sound can found within the folds of our 81st release, The Folded Road.

---

Zonra - Conviction

Zonra – Conviction [RUST075]

$4.00

---

Jackson Hale’s Zonra project has earned a well-rounded reputation for the depth, detail, and overall presentation of his minted works. Each release has explored numerous themes in the space of contemporary sound design, broken-beat bass music, and scintillating downtempo collections, giving him an already extremely wide, well-balanced berth of music under his belt. Never content to miss the opportunity for compositional gold, the most recent collection of Zonra works are a significant step away from his more dance floor-friendly interpretations: Conviction is an ambient exploration of generative synthesis, modular hardware, and emotive overtures, and The Rust Music is extraordinarily excited to give yet another Zonra release a proper introduction.

Conviction comprises three syncretic tracks, each a separate movement in an elongated presentation of the central piano theme. Across a run-time of 20 minutes, the dominant phrase evolves and morphs in accordance with envelopes triggered by Zonra’s physical modular systems, creating a tapestry of rich, interwoven textures and tension. Leaving behind the toil of tempo and quantization, Zonra once again redefines the upper limit of his skills and catalog, producing a stunning piece of contemporary music that sets him a step ahead of the pack. Whether you’ve been following along with the steady stream of Zonra releases over the years, or you’re just tuning in for the first time, the Conviction EP is one record that’ll you have you tuning in over and over again.

Written and Produced by Jackson Hale 
Mastering by Mindex 
Artwork by Pete Cote

---

Zonra - Time Is A Tool

Artwork: Katie Hale

Subverting compositional and design tropes each step of the way, the Zonra project has maintained a striking consistency in its escape from the norms of conventional electronic music. Straddled somewhere between the dance-centric sound of contemporary bass music producers and the aural experimentation developed by IDM pioneers, Jackson Hale achieves a stable balance between groove and intrigue with each subsequent release, moving that needle closer to either end whenever the need arises. In time-tested fashion, his latest LP is a work of beauty from every angle, and as such, The Rust is incredibly excited to premiere Time Is A Tool as our 61st label release.

Previous Zonra records have featured an amalgam of shredded synthesis, mean breakdowns, and carefully threaded melodic elements. Unsurprisingly, Hale flipped the script entirely for Time Is A Tool; The LP’s opening moments involve smooth harmonies egressing into smooth cadence, and that relationship carries on throughout each track. Choice waves of tension and release, told through the intentional splaying of tones and textures into glitched-out symphonies, creates a permeable catharsis within each fold of the record, slowly churning the listener towards the album’s zenith. Opting for slow, caressing tempos and chord phrases reminiscent of serene lullabies, the traditional throaty bass lines and hyper-compressed downbeats are put out to pasture in favor of a record filled to the brim with particularly intentional and resoundingly magical moments of introspection and rest. For those keen on finding their next sonic journey amidst a crowd with a dancefloor focus, Time Is A Tool is assuredly the album you’ve been searching for.

---

Zonra - Hypotheticals

Art: Blackartsviper

For The Rust Music's 50th release, we're incredibly honored to present Zonra's latest work, the Hypotheticals EP. Hailing from Santa Rosa, CA and wielding international appeal, Zonra's musical exploits are defined by lush textures and meticulous songwriting.

With a new record comes a new conceptual direction, and Hypotheticals strays far from the quantized pack, materializing as a blend of off-kilter melodies and staccato rhythms that churn out potent, asynchronous riffs. Pulling influence from the aggressive neuro staples of today's cutting-edge bass music in-between reverberant melodies and slapstick phrases, Zonra stands apart from his contemporaries in his ability to give delicate sound design choices a weighty impact.

---

Zonra - Formed

Art: Hexeosis

Take a pure and undiluted dive into sonic psychedelia with Formed, a five-track EP from Zonra, a veteran of experimental bass music. Although abstract electronica has always been a calling card for Jackson Hale (Zonra), he continues to test the limits of his creative faculties, and Formed is the splendid result.

Formed is detail-oriented electronic music. Crisp programmed percussion pairs well with resonant hand drum samples. Provocative sound design is arranged into complex structures resembling a four-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. The producer, who hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico and currently resides in Denver, Colorado, is recognized for his stylistic flexibility. Although Formed leverages psydub motifs, the release cannot easily be pegged with a traditional classification. Rather, it’s an exercise in experimentation.

Formed ultimately represents an unfolding, a manifestation on the physical plane of imagery conceived on the spiritual. The complexity of the imagery means that successive listens may yield new results. Spend time with Formed and one will realize that things may not be in the end as they seem at first.