“28” is a collaboration of intuitively beautiful music. It is a marriage of the electronic and the voice. This album holds a warmth and soulfulness rarely encountered in digital electronica. The gorgeous, haunting vocals of Noriko are treated too at times with stuttering, layering and subtle effects. Digital funk underpins the laid-back soundscapes they create. It’s a wonderful collaboration that builds a whole world between your speakers (or in the space between your headphones). The musical marriage of cutting edge digital sound and the human voice makes a match in heaven.
Month: August 2005
LUNZ “LUNZ/REINTERPRETATIONS”`
Lunz is a collaboration between Grammy nominated composer Tim Story and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. For anyone not yet familiar with Rodelius contributions to German cosmic music, I’d recommend Cluster “Cluster II” and Harmonia “Musik Von Harmonia” as excellent starting points.
However, enough of the past, let us move on to the present. What does Lunz sound like? The music is dominated by the piano with subtle, analogue electronic accompaniment which at times serves the same purpose as an orchestra playing some of Gorecki’s more minimalist symphonies. Not until “Wobbly Flu Twilight” do the electronics begin to raise their head a little higher and take the lead. By the time we get to “Akimbo” they’re dominating the experience, rumbling along like some kind of classical music meets dub.
U2’s The Edge [2022 note: I was quoting him to try and give the music mainstream mass appeal] described this album as “A beautiful train ride of a record” but to me it’s less of trip and more of a story. It sounds like the soundtrack to some fantastic film, a journey of inner discovery and realisation like “American Beauty” but with a rural setting. The album “Lunz” has a great beauty and a gentle strength that overwhelms. This is not the sound of a man chasing past glories but a powerful and fresh piece of work, packed with inspiration and charm.
Although in some territories, “Lunz” and “Reinterpretations” are sold separately, in others they come as a double CD pack. “Reinterpretations” sees a varied array of remixes. Forget any notions of “dance remixes”, for all these reworkings seek to represent the music in a new guise but none of them seem to be trying to ‘work the dancefloor’. Instead, the remixes seem to be coming more from the leftfield, with people like former Fridge member Adem keeping large elements of the original and adding his own vocals, as does Half Cousin. Astrid Kane chips in a great remix which adds in Lloyd Cole on vocals and Manchester’s current finest Elbow also do their own remix. One of the most striking things about these remixes is how faithful they all seem to be. All of the songs are still recognisable, have a similar spirit but each one has the remixes own personality stamped onto it.
2022 note: the Bandcamp embed below is for a recent reissue of just the original album but remastered and with bonus tracks