|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2CD
|
|
SP 008-016CD
|
Combined version of Music for Lovers Music Versus Time (2010) and Music for Wobbling Music Versus Gravity (2013). A duo can be the most magical of things, and it seems like the meeting of minds between Morr Music veteran F.S. Blumm and contemporary classical darling Nils Frahm was a match made in heaven. The ease with which they perform together is the first noticeable thing on Music for Wobbling Music Versus Gravity -- there is a discernible weightlessness to their sound as they circle around each other, moving and meeting, touching with their musical fingertips. This is lighthearted music, certainly, but Frahm's effortless melancholy pulls it back to the real world before there is any danger of things getting twee. The album is a selection of overdubbed and edited improvisations, and every sound was recorded with microphones, giving an indescribable air to the music that is a product of the space in the room. Breaths, fingers on keys and strings, chairs and feet -- everything can be heard plainly and this becomes a defining part of the compositions themselves. It almost becomes an experience akin to listening to an aging folk recording, but instead of a group of locals, this is merely two friends creating their own homespun instrumentals. The perfect record for the winter months, Music for Wobbling Music Versus Gravity is a generous gift from two of Germany's most hard-working talents, and it is guaranteed to warm even the coldest of hearts.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
SONIC 013LP
|
Oliver Doerell and Roger Döring's Dictaphone might not be the most prolific project around, but what they lack in frequency they make up for in sheer impact. Poems From A Rooftop is their third album in 10 years, and is the first to feature new member Alexander Stolze on violin. The dusty, haunted jazz of m.=addiction (CCO 010CD/LP) and Vertigo II (CCO 032CD/LP) is still visible, but joined by Stolze's shimmering string tones, giving the already rich sound a further layer of depth. The title comes from Iran's "green revolution," where people were so afraid to go out on the street, that they emerged on their own rooftops to protest the stifling regime. This sentiment carries into the conflict and shrouded mystery in each song, from the rhythmic, emotive bar-room crawl of "The Conversation" to the phenomenal "Rattle," led by vocalist Mariechen Danz. It seems as if Poems From A Rooftop catches a point in the band's career where they appear perfectly at ease with their sound, and able to distil the jazz, subtle electronics and haunting ambience of their previous records into one deftly-coherent whole. The result is an arresting and poignant narrative record which is sure to stand as their finest to date. Poems From A Rooftop is proof that the greatest poems might not even need lyrics at all, and Dictaphone manage in a flurry of notes to carry more emotion than an entire script of languid language. These are, without a doubt, poems you won't be so quick to forget.
|