Face to Face, Day by Day

Toronto-based musician and producer David Psutka aka Act! (fka Egyptrixx / Anamai / Ceramic TL) releases his latest project Face to Face, Day by Day for his own Halocline Trance imprint. 

This is is Psutka’s third album proper as Act! following the release of the “sonic mixtape” Universalist in 2018 and the augmented reality soundtrack Grey Matter AR in 2021; a series of Snapchat filters created by artist Karen Vanderborght and soundtracked by ACT! which explored the poetic and existential potential of AR and social media. 

Everything on Face to Face, Day by Day began as an improvisation. Openness to accidents and the emotional complexity that comes from centering them in composition has become important to his work, and helps the music go beyond the possibility of what is playable, imaginable. He wanted to channel adventurous solo pop records of the 1970’s and 80’s, like Yasuaki Shimizu, Jon + Vangelis and Stevie Wonder. These came from an interesting era in commercial music as studio production techniques became increasingly formalised as compositional devices, like AMS RMX16 percussion sounds and early digital stereo effects.