Anthonie Tonnon - Leave Love Out Of This - CD (FYR023)

On his latest release Leave Love Out Of This, Anthonie Tonnon and producer Jonathan Pearce (The Beths) have moved beyond the 1970s technology that powered their 2015 Taite Prize nominated album Successor – and into electronically generated percussion, and textures that blur the lines between organic and synthesized sound. Guitars are set against synthesizers, strings against drum machines, and songs emerge from beats, rather than strummed chords. The title track’s ballad for piano and string quartet defines the tone, when it drops into an electronic wall of sound, complete with epic guitar solo.

Tonnon and Pearce recorded Leave Love Out Of This between 2017 and 2020, and in that time, Tonnon’s practice evolved heavily. On tours with Nadia Reid, The Chills, and The Veils, He began incorporating new technologies into his work, including the Wellington-designed Synthstrom Deluge – which he would later use to control music and lighting in his immersive show for planetariums, A Synthesized Universe, and propel the songs and narrative segues of his Rail Land tour.

Though the sound has evolved, a constant has been Tonnon’s lyrics. He tackles the rise to the top of the television industry in ‘Entertainment’ as deftly as he does for evolution and the future of work in ‘Two Free Hands,’ or regulatory failure in ‘Mataura Paper Mill.’ On Leave Love Out Of This, his distinctive approach to subject matter, description and phrasing is unmistakable.

Artwork by Daniel Blackball Alexander

1. Entertainment
2. Two Free Hands
3. Old Images
4. Leave Love Out Of This
5. When I'm Wrong
6. Christopher
7. Peacetime Orders
8. Mataura Paper Mill