For his latest recording, German experimental music legend Asmus Tietchens creates new works recycled (not remixed) from his older material. The recordings presented on this album are the 10th generation in the recycling process. The first few tracks tend to be quiet and distant drone, puncuated with brief, focused bursts of sound. Opener “p1B” uses this effect most startlingly. “L2RB” utilizes a distant landscape drone, with some occasional industrial clanging placed in the foreground. Most of the following pieces are bit more immediate, and not quite as quiet and distant. “L2RD” uses what might have been a piano or keyboard tone at one point, and places it atop a dronescape, sometimes making it sound like a dulcimer. Closer “p2A” switches between several spaces, from spattering synth to sparse electronic hi-hat ticking to bassy rumbling.
I was initially put off by this album because of how distant it feels at first, especially compared to Tietchens’ Sky Records work, and his Hematic Sunsets alter-ego. But this CD definitely rewards upon repeated listens. There’s plenty of very subtle, consciousness-altering things happening here. Lots of moments where you’ll focus on one sound, and something more upfront will burst in and throw you for a loop.
