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Robin Rimbaud, also known as Scanner, has been a fixture of British electronic music since the early 1990s. To launch Verdurin’s new series of critical listening sessions, Room Tone, a presentation of Rimbaud’s work will invite a response from music writer Tim Rutherford-Johnson.

Rimbaud’s 2017 album Fibolae occupies a special place in the musician’s extensive discography. The album advances his experimentation with a variety of equipment, instruments, and styles that has characterised his output for over three decades.

Yet this eleven-track record stands out. Rimbaud originally received international attention for his reduced ambient music based on recordings of private telephone conversations. Created after a period of personal loss, Fibolae shifts between intimate and intense energetic moments that contrast with Rimbaud’s recognisable moods and textures.

Fibolae’s sonic world is made up of a more eclectic array of acoustic instruments, synthesisers, samples, and production techniques. It freely traverses idioms from pop to jazz and incorporates them in dense layers of sound. How does this approach to sourcing musical material lend itself to the making of a work that is — in contrast to the open ethos — both individual and singular?