Facta - Blush

April 2, 2021 - Wisdom Teeth

London producer, tastemonger, and co-parent of label Wisdom Teeth Oscar Henson is here with his debut album as Facta. The project, which is the second full length to come from the budding label, serves as an introspective exploration of mood and memory and music. It’s an album that feels timeless and of the Very Much Now in equal measure; a moment of respite that’s always welcome but especially necessary at this time. 

We open on ‘Sistine (Plucks),’ a lush mountain landscape populated by airy synths, synthetic strings, and an electric brook, endlessly bubbling with artificial life. Vibrant recorded ambiance flows around the melodic elements. The piece is gentle but full of potential energy; the atmosphere around us grows cool and thin as we hike onward, anticipation filling the lungs for the vista that will soon be visible. This energy carries over into the next two tracks. ‘On Deck’ solidifies the merging of the organic and artificial, with a smooth melodic crystal staircase emerging from the trail. The rising melody urges us upward into ‘Brushes,’ which sheds much of it’s ariose aspects in favor of complex percussive elements. Henson’s penchant for ever-rising tension remains, with brushed snares and a snappy bassline twirling around pseudo-mallet instruments. The atmosphere is more foreboding here than previous tracks; calm but not serene. 

‘Verge’ metaphorically brings the project back down to Earth while at the same time achieving liftoff. Gentle chords splay themselves across the evening sky as a futuristic instrument from the distant past teases out a solo. It’s an easygoing track, edging toward jazz and world music spheres without fully committing to any particular airspace. The world continues its path to abstraction with ‘Iso Stream.’ Some of the first vocal elements make themselves present here; vocal snippets playfully intermingle with a rubber band bass and cheery stretched chords. The clouds part on an idyllic hidden lagoon on ‘Diving Birds (with Parris)’ featuring fellow Londoner Dwayne Parris of Wisdom Teeth and The Trilogy Tapes renown. Henson and Parris allude to the dancefloor with a rolling bassline and an infectious percussive loop, reminding us of what we’ve been missing and can look forward to. Like many points on this record, the effect is effortless. Sultry sounds slip in under the skin, carrying our mind beyond the limitations of the present and into the possibilities of non-linear time. 

The titular ‘Blush’ rolls in next, with radar blips and electronic sizzles bringing to mind monochrome CRT monitors and nostalgic engrams laced with science fiction sentiments. The main melody is held at arm's length, not unresolved, but at a distance that divides the realities of the false nostalgia and the present. Before we know it, ‘Low Bridge (Lights)’ fills the space with thick, digital orchestration. The piece feels both somber and hopeful, like an interlude between worlds—a feeling further deepened by the soft bells that chime as the piece, and project, comes to a close.

Henson has tapped into that elusive vein of nondescript feeling and place and time on Blush, inserting memory and hope and introspection into a place that exists outside the flow of history. The strong sense of abstraction allows the tracks to flow into each other and into the listener alike, picking up moments of nostalgia and subverting them to have strong emotional ties to both the present and future. The apparent ease of it all has us keen on what Henson has in store for the next calm journey, the next waking dream, the next breath of artificial air. 🍍