Alex Gonzales and John Kunkel turn spontaneous studio chemistry into an evolving collision of techno, melodic house and industrial electronics.
Electronic duo UNTER STRØM continues to blur the boundaries between the club and the cinematic on new single “Fragment,” the latest release from the project via Breathing Records.
Bringing together Alex Gonzales of Matte Blvck and John Kunkel of The New Division and John Grand, UNTER STRØM combines progressive electronic production with industrial textures, melodic house, techno and atmospheric songwriting. The project has already found support within the electronic world from Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy, Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance, Ferry Corsten and Markus Schulz.
While UNTER STRØM’s first two releases were constructed remotely, “Fragment” represents a significant shift in the duo’s creative process. The track was born during one of Gonzales and Kunkel’s first dedicated writing retreats at Los Angeles’ Sound Factory, where they spent two days working together without deadlines or a predetermined destination.
Beginning with an empty session, the pair traded places behind the desk and allowed each new idea to reshape what came before it. Instead of squeezing the results into a traditional electronic structure, they followed the track wherever it wanted to go. Sections continually transform rather than settling into comfortable repetition, giving “Fragment” a restless, exploratory quality that mirrors the circumstances of its creation.
The song was initially intended to remain an unreleased live ID, but ultimately became something more important: a snapshot of UNTER STRØM discovering what the project could become when its two members occupied the same creative space.
“Fragment” was mixed by Aaron Short, whose credits include The Naked and Famous and So Below, and mastered by Mike Marsh, whose extensive résumé includes work with Depeche Mode, Massive Attack, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers.
With “Fragment,” UNTER STRØM sounds less interested in obeying electronic music’s established lanes than finding the strange intersections between them.