“Here is a great find that brings us back to this beautiful era where the cosmic and floating electronic rock propelled the Berlin School style”
1 Blue Tang 6:53 2 Conductivity 11:32 3 Antares 10:16 4 Satyr 10:22 5 Kymatica 8:49 6 Vespertine 4:19 Iapetus Music
(DDL 52:12) (V.F.) (Krautrock & Berlin School)
Here is a great find. Ordinarily, the name of Bernhard Wöstheinrich is synonymous with an EM which flirts with jazz and with experimental music, not to say abstract, especially when he teamed up with his faithful accomplice Markus Reuter in the Centrozoon project. But one also forgets that he made very good albums of a floating and drifting Berlin School style, like with the very good Live in Düsseldorf in 2006. This time, Bernhard teamed up with Andreas Von Garnier and guitarist Leander Reininghaus to form the trio TaboTago. The fruits of their work result in KYMATICA. A first delicious and promising opus that brings us back to this beautiful era where the cosmic and floating electronic rock propelled the Berlin School style.
Electronic noises which stretch like the reverberations of a long corkscrew struggling to pull the cork open the first seconds of Blue Tang. A series of hesitant pulsations beat these moods at the same time as anesthetic synth pads get melt into the stereo effect of reverberations. By stretching their analgesic scents which erode the fragility of certain lines intertwined in this oscillating pond, the dominant tablecloths are very Klaus Schulze. These layers and their tonal differences will feed the different sonic panoramas of KYMATICA. The pulsations that were lost in this mass return in a more accentuated pattern shortly before the 2nd minute, giving a very Berliner momentum to the rhythm of Blue Tang. This continuous and minimalist flow is the perfect scenario for a flock of iconoclastic effects and noises to fly and float between the currents of these anesthetic layers. The rhythm is soft, hovering and linear. Conductivity is a very good track which plunges us into a Berlin School of the analog years. A title which makes this connection between the sound experiments of Tangerine Dream from the Electronic Meditation years to the sequenced models of the Virgin years. But before, you have to stuff your ears more than 6 minutes of an introduction that will certainly please fans of the Zeit period. The sound texture, especially these floating pads full of ether, is rich of its variegated tones that make our ears always look fashionable; but what is this? The second phase is pure Tangerine Dream of the Franke-Froese-Baumann years with a sequencer which knits an evolving rhythm and its artistic zigzags which support this rich sound textures that bring Conrad Schnitzler's ingenuity to the fore. Delicious! Antares is an ambient track that makes us drift in a yet hallucinogenic setting which progresses with great intensity, provided by the lamentations knitted of distortions coming from the guitar of Leander Reininghaus. It's very Pink Floyd at times, especially in the 2nd part with floating solos which tickle our arms' hairs. After an intro in rhythm as fluid as the Berlin School structure of Conductivity, Satyr plunges into a purely experimental phase, a cosmic-ambient-sonic genre. I think a little to Tomita, Snowflakes are Dancing, here. The title-track is the one which clings the fastest to our ears with a very TD's Berlin School style, the sequencers of Bernhard Wöstheinrich and Andreas Von Garnier are a pleasure for the ears, embellished with an Ashra vision, for the loops of guitar's riffs, where we even hear the melody of Phaedra floating in the scenery. If Kymatica is easy to approach, Vespertine is not left behind with another fluid and continuous sequenced structure. Anesthetic pads, so many synths and guitars, and fragments of melodies scattered in the cosmos adorn a soundscape less abrasive to the ear but still rich of its intentions. Beautiful music that crowns the 52 minutes of KYMATICA. An excellent surprise of a trio who, I hope, could hold us surprises as the orientations of the 6 titles presented suggest horizons still ten times more attractive. TaboTago! Remember this name!
Sylvain Lupari (July 2nd, 2018) ****½*
Available on Iapetus Bandcamp
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