Donabate producer Chósta teams up with Jape on 'That Object Spoke To Me'

Dublin electronic producer Chósta has announced his debut album Twilight Transmission by teaming up with fellow Irish artist Jape (AKA Richie Egan) on new track 'That Object Spoke To Me'.

According to Chósta himself (Conor Kelly), the track stems from his early insecurities making music, when he feared that his lack of playing ability and technical proficiency would prevent him from creating the songs in his head.

"Eventually, I found sampling and other methods which worked for me, making music in almost collage form," the producer recalls. "Reading about collage art led me to the cutup technique popularised by William Burroughs and it clarified in my head that there are many different methods of creating. The vocal sample at the beginning of the track is from an interview with Burroughs talking about this style."

The uplifting and dream-like single aims to capture the boundless possibility of life when you put your mind to something and find the beauty in the process.

Chósta sent Jape an instrumental for 'That Object Spoke To Me', with Richie Egan responding with his vocals and a few other parts.

"I’ve been a fan of Richie’s work long before I made music myself, and have always held him up as a standard bearer for Irish independent artists,"," Kelly explains. "Chancing my arm, I emailed him last year about possibly collaborating on a track and to my immense surprise he was not only aware of my music but had already bought my EP on Bandcamp. We went back-and-forth, eventually settling on a final cut. It was my first experience of proper collaboration and one I’ll remember extremely fondly. "

'That Object Spoke To Me' is taken from Chósta's forthcoming debut album Twilight Transmission, which will be self-released on his Midnight Tapes label on February 17th, 2023.

Twlight Transmission is a concept record about a fictional network of interconnected radio stations.

"The album was written and recorded over much of the past 18 months beginning in bleak lockdown," the producer says. "During that period of isolation and social depravity, I got back into listening to radio for the first time in years. I found much of what I heard here in Ireland was painfully bland and filled with the same handful of major label artists shoved down my throat. This Sheeran-fication was a far cry from my childhood growing up with late night shows such as Donal Dineen’s Small Hours to educate and expand musical taste."

Chósta eventually came across digital radio and NTS+DDR shows that presented the eclecticism he so craved.

"I regularly discovered music, both new and old, that blew my mind, and radio once again acted as a companion in lonely times. Twilight Transmission is a tribute to those days when commercial radio here had variety and space that catered to different tastes."

Sonically, the album is influenced by trip-hop era Portishead, Boards of Canada, post-dubstep, jazzy 1990s hip-hop production, William Basinski, Tim Hecker’s ‘Radio Amor’ and Madvillian. Chósta mixed the LP alongside Patrick King, with mastering from Ciarán McCarthy.

His previous single, November 2021's 'Late Night Jazz Radio', was a gorgeous mix of genres; from electronica, downtempo, IDM, and tantalising form of outsider house which has existed in some form or another for about two years.

If the likes of Four Tet, Baba Stiltz, Mount Kimbie, DJ Koze, Session Victim and Leon Vynehal are on your Spotify Wrapped, Chósta is right up your street. As he should be.

The artwork and design for Twilight Transmission was created by Adam Kelly

Listen to 'That Object Spoke To Me' below.

Twilight Transmission Tracklist

Intreoir
As The Rain Fell
Vox
Honesty (Ft. Fears)
Please, No More Ad Breaks
Sensitive Station
That Object Spoke To Me (Ft. Jape)
Street Light
Late Night Jazz Radio
Sin é