Till the Old World’s Blown Up a and New One Is Created
It’s a shame this collaboration will likely remain dwarfed by Fennesz’s masterful and justifiably ballyhooed […]
It’s a shame this collaboration will likely remain dwarfed by Fennesz’s masterful and justifiably ballyhooed solo record, Black Sea—this is no less impressive, and arguably bolder. Fennesz is, of course, the tremendous brain behind numerous ambient-plus guitar/electronics syntheses; Austrian drummer Martin Brandlmayr has worked with post-rock outfits Trapist and Radian, and double-bassist/electronics player Werner Dafeldecker is part of Autistic Daughters, among others. The record’s first half—the 35-minute title track—is a spliced tectonic drift, starting and ending in gnarled electronics and bridged by a glitchy ambient plateau of slipping and wobbling tonalities. The remainder of the record is largely devoted to a more post-rock sound, albeit abstract and improvised, with Brandlmayr’s restrained drumming bringing us back to solid ground.