Ever since the internet became a household utility, vaporous electronic music has been the subgenre of choice for being online. Early 21st-century artists like Aphex Twin and Burial remain evergreen, especially as contemporary artists channel their textured work into new shapes.
Enter Jan in Hell, the moniker of Rochester native and current downstate student Janet Fornieri.
Her latest self-released short album, “Gammatology,” a seven-song adventure through rainy and mellow drum and bass, hit Bandcamp earlier this spring. It proves a formidable assembly of electronic somnambulance injected with life courtesy of occasional samples.
“Haunted” dances around alternative R&B with mesmerizingly out of reach vocal fragments, while “Bonanza Split” integrates old film dialogue into a rhythmic churn, highlighted by bright synthesizer patches.
The twitchiest tune, “Heartbreakingly,” surges like a caffeine high and pairs nicely with certain high-intensity gaming aesthetics. But it’s an outlier.
“Gammatology” relies on cool, detached beats to create an overall mood of casual aloofness. The more you lean in, the more you discover: tiny synthesized squiggles on opener “Abjad,” subtle evolving musicality on ambient closer “XTine” and more moments yet to be parsed out.
Close listening is essential, given Jan in Hell’s sparse digital presence. Apart from a few glitched images on Bandcamp and SoundCloud, the artist has taken a backseat to the music.
These songs, created and finalized over the past few months before seeing release, are the focus. The lack of further detail creates an aura of mystery that lends itself to a blissful musical experience.
Some of Jan’s past work, like 2023’s “Modular Jams,” explored heavy, acerbic sounds. “Gammatology,” plus recent flips of Charli XCX’s single “B2b” and the hyperpop moments of the “Pahnishment” EP, point to a bright — if unpredictable — path forward. Just like the last 25 years of being online.
Patrick Hosken is an arts writer for CITY.