Arctween Lets the Drums Wander on Plane Of Existence

Arctween’s Plane Of Existence sounds like a record made after hours, when the day is over, the room is still on, and the ideas have enough air around them to get weird. It is rhythmic, but it never feels trapped by the grid. It is ambient at times, but it keeps a human pulse underneath. It moves like a beat tape in certain moments, then slips into dubby, spacious, experimental corners before the groove gets too comfortable.

The album arrives September 25 via O Sótão Records, with vinyl, digital, and streaming formats planned. Across 15 tracks, Porto-based Tito Romão pulls from a musical background that explains a lot about why the record feels the way it does. He first came up as a drummer, later moving into composition and production across different instruments and collaborations. He studied cello, taught piano for a short period, developed the Arctween project, and has spent the past couple of years holding a Saturday residency at Mr. Bean’s, where he still plays regularly with the house band.

That player’s instinct is all over Plane Of Existence. The drums have a tight, vintage feel, but Romão is not using percussion as a blunt force object. He treats it like a way into the room. The rhythms give the music shape, then the surrounding tones, pauses, and odd little details start doing the slower work.

Tito Romão’s Drumming Background Keeps the Album Human

The best thing about Plane Of Existence is that it still feels played, even when it is at its most minimal. That does not mean everything sounds live in an obvious way. It means the timing, pacing, and rhythmic choices have the feel of someone who understands how bodies move around sound.

That matters for an ambient-leaning record.

Music this open can easily become too weightless. Arctween avoids that by letting percussion act as the album’s physical memory. Even when a track starts to float, there is usually something percussive nearby, a pulse, a knock, a shuffle, a dusty hit, or a repeated movement that keeps the piece from disappearing.

I wrote about a different version of this live-player mentality in my Do It Live feature with Bada-Bada, where the bigger idea was how electronic-adjacent music changes when performers bring instrumental timing into the process. Arctween’s record is quieter and more inward, but it benefits from that same sense of touch.

O Sótão Records Gives the Album Room to Unfold

O Sótão Records feels like the right home for this project because Plane Of Existence needs to exist as an album, not as a scattered batch of tracks. The sequence is part of the point. It starts to reveal Romão’s musical identity by letting the pieces accumulate.

His earlier releases already pointed in this direction. Forbidden Cuts appeared in 2018, followed by Dance Of The Spheres on Discotexas in 2020. With Gazpa, a longtime friend from his skateboarding days, he released Gaztween’s I via Jazzego Records in 2020, followed by II in 2025. He also produced Ping Pong, later released in 2024 through Jorge Caiado’s Mad Luv Records.

That catalog gives Plane Of Existence more context. This is not a sudden left turn. It feels like the album where several parts of Romão’s practice finally sit in the same place: drummer, producer, collaborator, DJ, ambient listener, dub head, and player.

I thought of my coverage of Mark Barrott’s The Exit Diaries while listening to this kind of record-making. The sonic language is different, but both projects value patience, subtle movement, and music that lets several references breathe without over-directing the listener.

For Tito Romão, that quietness feels like a statement. Plane Of Existence is one of the clearest presentations yet of his musical identity because it allows all of his background to appear without turning the album into a résumé. The drummer is present. The producer is present. The multi-instrumentalist is present. But the record is less about proving range than letting the music settle into its own pace.

Plane Of Existence arrives September 25 via O Sótão Records. It is a warm, patient, rhythm-led album for listeners who like electronic music that gives the mind somewhere to wander.