...und dann kommen im fünften Track plötzlich Vocals dazu, und uns dämmert, dass wir hier plötzlich eine große Dark-Pop Elektronikplatte vor uns haben. Die auf der Höhe der Zeit ist, und so unsentimental, wie es das Genre noch erlaubt. Kangding ray breitet in vierzehn konzisen Tracks ein ausladendes Sturmgemälde über einen tiefhängenden Himmel, und dieser wirft uns, in flimmerndem, ewigem Dämmerlicht, immer wieder frische Schauer von Distortion, an die wir schon gar nicht mehr geglaubt haben, gegen unsere staubtrockene Scheibe, hinter der wir uns an den klassischen IDM-Beats das Herz wärmen wie an alten Radios. Elektrische Entladungen und knallende Bassdrums spannen die Früh-CCO- und Expanding-esken Melodiebögen auf den Raster-Noton-Metalltisch, unter dem sich die Schatten von Depeche Mode schlafen gelegt haben. Denn da sind wie gesagt noch diese Vocals, die David Letellier wie auch seinen Gästen so wunderbar gelingen. Mich hat seit "Some Great Rewards", na, sagen wir, seit "Pretty Hate Machine" keine solche Platte so überzeugend in ihren klaustrophobischen Bann gelockt wie diese, und das ist ja alles wirklich sehr lange her.
Multipara . De Bug

... Dort würde in der späten Dämmerung mit Licht und Formen gespielt, mit der stoischen, schweren Statik von Stein und Beton, mit der ruhelosen, leichten Dynamik dümpelnder Bäche und florierender Grünflächen, worauf im Wind Büsche flackern und emsige Insekten flickern. Roher Digitalismus überwachsen von geschmeidiger, organischer Sensibilität. Kangding Ray balanciert gekonnt auf dem schmalen Grat zwischen überflüssigem Schnickschnack und monotoner Sparsamkeit, mischt verspielte Melodien in industriellen Maschinenlärm, zerschnipselt wummernde und klickernde Beats, loopt und schichtet akustische Instrumente, nutzt digitale Anomalien und lässt das mal bedrohliche, mal einladende Treiben seiner Klanglandschaften vereinzelt von Stimmensamples durchdringen. Ein potenzieller Lustgarten für den, der was für elektronische Klangkultur übrig hat, und durchaus mal ein Besuch wert.
78s Magazin

... As I have already alluded, the album lends itself to visions of apparitions; on “Altiz”, the underpinning synthesizer sounds like the uncomfortable straining of a ghost in the machine, a spirit caught in a horrendous routine of torture with the false promise of release. Many of Letellier’s selections for drum sounds bring to mind the deep ringing of the hull of an ocean liner long since sunk to the icy depths of the Atlantic: big, robust sounds buried in a vast watery grave. And then there is the repeated use of pinging sounds that make you anxiously await the explosion of some sonic bomb or the appearance of a ghost satellite rounding the moon – the coming of some end without really knowing how soon. (...) Automne Fold, which means “Fall Fold,” is beautiful for its austere nature and (imagined) foreboding tales of spirits trapped in mucky pockets of the endless ether. Maybe it represents the decay, the end, that Autumn comes to mean for deciduous trees or the hibernation of bears: the world folds in on itself as it goes to sleep or else dies before renewal can be arrived at.
Gabriel Bogart . The Silent Ballet

... Automne Fold, the Berlin-based artist's sophomore effort, goes further in exploring this combination of digital and organic sounds, incorporating more acoustic instrumentation (such as violins and a detuned piano) and even vocals, creating what is one of the label's warmest and most openly emotional releases. (...) Letellier still uses many of the hallmarks of the label's sound, deploying crisp digital beats and flickering rhythmic bursts of hiss and static to create an album that feels clean and pristine, yet also warm and organic. It's this contrast that makes Automne Fold so engaging and compelling, with the acoustic tones softening the edges of the sharp digital rhythms. And it's here, where these seemingly opposing sounds meet, that real feeling is found. For Letellier the heart of the machine is not cold and analytical, but is instead human and emotional. (...) That Letellier can so deftly and consistently merge these sounds with a digital palette is impressive (...) With Automne Fold Letellier has crafted an album that is extremely moving, expressive, and accessible from beginning to end. Highly recommended.
Resident Advisor

... Kangding Ray a travaillé sa matière musicale brute dans un sens plus sombre et saturé sans ne rien renier pourtant de la tension douce, cinématique et cotonneuse qui accompagne la majorité des pièces. Le résultat se révèle donc toujours aussi expectatif, mais avec des jeux d'ambiances renouvelées (les claquements de bouche et de voix sur "Downshifters") et des structurations digitales évoluant davantage sur les fibrillations électro-statiques ("World within words", "Palisades").
Octopus Magazine

... Ray tests the compatibility of fractured, digitally processed and suggestive fragments with more fully formed, organic pieces of music with grace and easy assurance. It's simply but ably mixed, with sparse, hair-trigger beats that dovetail cleanly. A particularly strong concentration on form is evident on this occasion, as rhythmic signatures of techno, electro, and dub are heard somewhere behind the scrim of bytes, like grave-rubbings rendered pixel by pixel. In fact, a conventional musicality often works in tandem with the unconventional texture of the music. A track like "Idle" features firing arpeggios and pitchbending squawks put to the service of the composition, but at the same time its pushed to a brittle edge, and never sounds so straight as to be mere mimicry of a model. Further pieces are predominated by rhythms that sound as though they were sourced from a failing dot-matrix printer, supplemented by gentle filigree embellishments and counterweighted by warbling tones that deceive as to precisely what Kangding is smuggling through underneath. (...) The picture offered by Automne Fold remains a total one - an atmosphere saturated with memories, ambience, and temporal depth.
Max Schaefer . www.cyclicdefrost.com

... The album starts off dark, shadowy and edgy with samples of a rain drenched Berlin over eerier stripped electro bass and percussive tones, and it really never full steps back out of the shadows even on the more accessible moments. (...) The clinically/complex often static and noise lined beat patterns that are Raster-Noton trademarks are sunk and weaved into a dense often airless tracks that hover with shifts of doomy synth atmospheric and harmonics. With also the of use of more organic elements treading here and there too like contrabass, Detuned piano, bowed guitar, violins and human vocals. A great dark, creative and intelligent yet accessible slice of electroncia that will appeal beyond the usually Raster-Noton buyer, yet it never compromises or sells it self short manging to be approachable yet experimental.
Roger Batty . www.musiquemachine.com

I can't explain how we slept on this one, except that maybe its beauty is so unobtrusive I'd mistaken the semi-epiphanies it provoked for something outside of my headphones. Like Burial's Untrue (2007), Automne Fold's urban, nocturnal loneliness can sound morose or blasé intially, until you wake up one day and realize the music has become like a second skin. Kangding Ray might also end up doing for minimal/glitch techno what Burial did for dubstep: establishing warmth and intimacy in a genre not known for either.
Joel Elliott . www.cokemachineglow.com

... First impressions are always important and this wonderful new CD in the Raster Limited series makes absolutely the right impression from the first notes of the first track. As a complete work it sits somewhere between Carsten Nicolai's Alva Noto sound and the work of someone like Shuttle358. Yes, it's a melodic and beautiful album that's full of signature Raster sounds and manipulations. The tracks are much more 'track-like' though (if you see what I mean) and there's a soft, ambient tone flowing throughout that marks this out from the rest of the catalogue. Clicky rhythms and pure tones form the basis but the strength of the piece comes from the overlaid elements of classic melody and analogue sounds that weave in and out of the mix. Quite simply an absolutely marvellous piece of work that should find a home in many a collection.”
smallfish

... „Stabil“ von Kangding Ray alias David Letellier aus Frankreich, ein Release, das sich geschlossen und konventionell in Albumform präsentiert, erreicht mitunter eine Sinnlichkeit und harmonische Eindeutigkeit, die immer wieder ganz konkrete Pop-Assoziationen auslöst und z.B. in bestimmten Momenten an Indietronica-Maßstäben gemessen werden könnte oder auch mal recht konkret an TripHop gemahnt. Das hat sicherlich nicht nur mit der im Wandel befindlichen Ausrichtung des Labels, sondern vor allem mit Letelliers Musikbiografie zu tun. Er ist kein gelernter Programmierer oder Theoretiker, sondern hat sich über eine Bandvergangenheit als Gitarrist und Schlagzeuger dem elektronischen Musizieren angenähert. So sind seine Töne eben nicht nur Sound, sondern immer auch Melodie, Rhythmus und Stimmung. (...) Eine besondere Erwähnung verdient außerdem noch das Verpackungsdesign von Nibo. Der elegante Kartonschuber wurde so lang gestaltet, dass neben der CD nicht nur eine limitierte Postkarte, sondern bestimmt auch noch eine Nicht-CD darin Platz findet, auf der sich all die ausgelösten Assoziationen entfalten können.
arno raffeiner . intro magazine

“... Melodic and mechanical, electronic and acoustic, the minimal, textured music of Kangding Ray (aka France’s David Letellier) is a riveting blend of crackling noise, sampled guitars, sensual rhythms and digital errors. Letellier’s rich mix-and-match approach, as heard on his debut album, Stabil, has its roots in his rock, pop and jazz background.
montreal mirror