“We cannot have a more beautiful surprise than this Kometenbahn which is a superb travel in time. 2 thumbs up E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr!”
1 Prolog im Himmel 2:25 2 Durch den kosmischen Dunst 11:26 3 Nachtgeis 6:25 4 Sonnenwind 8:45 5 Sonnenaufgang 9:05 6 Mythos 3:05 Bandcamp (DDL 41:13) Svart Records2 013 (LP 41:13) (Berlin School/Space Rock) (V.F.)
You remember the nice time of vinyl albums? The rich tones and ambiences? You remember the70's, and even the 80's, when EM breathed of a fascinating creative freedom? Of this time when magicians such as Klaus Schulze and Chris Franke extirpated any forms of warm atmospheres and fascinating musicality out of these metal beasts with 1 000 wires and cables that were the big Moog? You remember the debut of Neuronium? The emergence of the French artists, like Jean-Michel Jarre and Space Art who have redefined the cosmic structures? The time when EM, uncertain of its atmospheres, roved with Krautrock? Well it's straight in these memories that I fell when my ears crossed KOMETENBAHN from the Finnish group E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr. And I write it straightaway; it's my very favorite so far in 2013. I listen KOMETENBAHN for the last days and the words are rushing in my head, so much there is to say. The sound! WoW! One would say this sound the 70's vinyl album. The music? Re WoW! One would say a work of analog years lost in time. And say that I almost missed it…
We feel invaded by these sonic vibes as soon as Prolog im Himmel moves with its muddy approach à la Neuronium. Usually, the use of a vocoder annoys me. Here it's enigmatic in this ambience of ether with a derisive voice which floats in the morphic ashes of a Memotron of which the crescendo is feeding a sound fever that we feel with already attentive ears. The rhythm pulsating hypocritically, welcoming a Memotron with a charming melody, Durch den kosmischen Dunst skips with coherence in its cosmic mist. The sonic mood is rich and incredible. We touch the stars and we feel these breezes which move the comets blowing in our ears on a structure of ambient rhythm, a little like into Michael Garrison's electronic world, which rebels and bends in order to beat with more energy. The sequencer keys borrow two tones, cavorting in two crisscrossed lines in a mystic layer of fog which continues its charming touch with fluty breaths a bit nasal. The percussions are leading the charge to support an always ambient rhythm which is getting tougher and also basks in the caresses of a Memotron and its soporific fluty shadows singing in a shroud decorated of cosmic chirping. The rhythm comes back with more strength after this soft oneiric passage. The percussions thunder, the synths draw harmonies which dream on the back of stars and on voices from outer-world, wrapping a slow rhythmic implosion of which the continual sequenced kicks remain prisoners of an intense and rich ambio-sonic pattern. This slow rhythm, encircled by a thick layer of iridescent mist, welcomes Nachtgeis and its long lamentations of a six-strings skillfully tortured by Kimi Kärki. After this soft blues to the cosmic wanderings, Sonnenwind releases some sound hoops of which the echoes forge an extraterrestrial melody which resounds in a kind of magnetic field. Tearing cracklings, similar to the spectral tears coming from the Martenot waves, float like phantoms with an aureole of statics on a structure of processional rhythm which offers a sneaky crescendo, where grave chords are falling and evanescent harmonies are whistled, but of which we lose the sense of beat in this avalanche of eclectic tones. Riffs of guitar move like Manuel Gottsching's imprints while that Sonnenwind fortifies its sonic membrane of black breaths which float such as snakes around their preys, entailing its finale towards an impressive meshing of sounds and ambiences colligated right from its very first seconds. And it's exactly in the interstices of Ashra that Sonnenaufgang entails us. The rhythm is heavy, and the synth is very musical with its harmonious breezes which coo on a pulsatory structure where riffs of guitars and percussions plough an intensity repressed by vampiric shadows. One would say a meshing of Space Art and Earthstar with a touch of contemporaneousness à la Death in Vegas. Outstanding EM with a zest of Krautrock here. This is beautiful, good and good heavens that reminds us the analog years. Mythos plunges us into the depths of Klaus Schulze's ambient analog works with the shadows of Memotron which float and smooth in the chirping of electronic celestial bodies and nostalgic chords of a forsaken six-strings. Too short!
We cannot have a more beautiful surprise than this KOMETENBAHN from E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr. Pertti Grönholm, Kimi Kärki, Jaakko Penttinen and Ismo Virta weave an album, like in the good times when vinyl albums had a length of hardly 45 minutes, where the line of confusion which bounded the Krautrock to EM engendered works as remarkable as eclectic. Let's add to this the romantic approaches of the French cosmic EM as well as this sound so unique of the analog years and we have an album which overtakes all waits. Magnificent, powerful and imaginative, this is my very favorite in 2013. For those whom the vinyl always interests, KOMETENBAHN is also offered in vinyl in a very limited edition of 300 pressings. But the CD sounds so much like vinyl.
Sylvain Lupari (September 15th, 2013) *****
Availaible at E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr Bandcamp
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