“Wonderful EM in a pure Berlin School style”
1 Hermes 4:28 2 Monotaur 5:28 3 Zaubertrank 5:35 4 Eiszeit 4:32 5 Es gibt keine mehr 13:30 6 Kirlian 5:01 7 Die einsamen Schatten 3:46 8 Der Mothmann 6:03 SynGate CD-R WN02
(DDL/CD-R 48:24) (V.F.) (Berlin School)
We still don't know who Wolfgang Nachahmer is! And yet, the secret was to be unveiled at the E-Live 2017, after the release of Hexenkessel. A year after this album, and the E.P. Schattenjäger, the secret remains whole! I hesitate between Peter Baumann and Harald Grosskopf, since the music and style of these two musicians are ubiquitous in this EISZEIT. A little more, I would say, than in Hexenkessel. But whatever! Wolfgang Nachahmer pays a treat to our ears with a delicious big
48-minute of vintage Berlin School EM where the rhythms, boned out of some riffs, parade with their circular skeletons under a sonic sky brimming with beautiful effects and synth solos as much agile than very melodious.
Hermes galvanizes our ears with lively rhythmic kicking from a sequencer as agile as a hare in pursuit of its female. Crazy of electronic beats that I am, I am not yet over my surprises here. The synth injects very vintage harmonic perfumes, I think of Earthstar and sometimes even Adelbert von Deyen, with an approach where synth's multiline spread echoes and other effects of prismed mists. And it's the same for the rhythmic pattern which juxtaposes its lines of sequences in a form of union between Chris Franke and Peter Baumann. My suspicions become filled of doubts with the introduction of Monotaur and its effects of misty Zombies voices a la Binar. This catchy title is set on a hypnotic rhythm with a circular approach rather like Düsseldorf School where a flop of sound effects, flirting with the borders of psychedelia, and solos that spin like pretzels refusing to close the loop but preferring to evaporate with the multiple sound effects, sometimes harmonic ones, of Monotaur. Yes ... Very catchy! As will become Zaubertrank which hatches with a wave scrolling like a jerky kaleidoscopic thin line. Still very beautiful, the Mellotron launches harmonic lines, tinted of a misty flute, which undeniably recall the very virginal music of Peter Baumann in Trans Harmonic Nights. If the approaches of rhythms without definite forms but catchy, sometimes for the fingers, sometimes the feet and often the neurons, are almost similar, the ambiences on Zaubertrank are more pull towards the zones of beyond the grave with layers of mist and Chthonian voices. The envelope is also more vintage.
Speaking from beyond the grave, the ambiences of the title-piece drag us along without resisting. Do you remember the movie Phantasm? We are here! Evolutionary title well installed on a sequencer in mode Berlin School ascending loops, like a train which rolls while performing spirals, Es gibt keine mehr goes like a complex remix of Force Majeure to which we add ingredients of the Exit album. The synth solos remain very melodious and fly over the course of this rhythmic train where murmurs, guitar riffs and the effects of flutes blown by a slightly damaged blowgun are grafted. The piano and the Mellotron add a fascinating dimension to the unrealism of a structure that likes to decompose itself in these flavors of Tangerine Dream and especially of Edgar Froese. As good as bold! After an intro forged in synthesized tinklings, Kirlian explodes for another phase of an electronic rock and non-rock fed by synth solos that light a very Klaus Schulze mood of the 70's. At 5 minutes, we want more! After the lunar interlude of Die einsamen Schatten, Der Mothmann arrives nervously in our ears. Whispers (tchop-tchap-tchop) and nervous arpeggios follow the shape of our eardrums with its half-amphibian and half-astronomical structure. The arpeggios flow with series of sequences whose semicircles feed on these synth-keyboard riffs while the rhythm gradually adopts an electronic rock stuffed of good synth solos. And as additional tonal appetizers, Wolfgang's imitator alleviates the weight of his sequencer by launching bright decorative filaments, witnesses to the abundance of sounds and electronic effects that further embellish the landscapes of EISZEIT. Another superb EM album from SynGate's Wolfgang Nachahmer and his amazing return to the past.
Sylvain Lupari (October 27th, 2018) ****½*
Available at SynGate's Bandcamp
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