“Greatest Hits is a nice surprise which suits marvelously to this new generation of musicians which redefine the borders of the German EM”
1 The Good, The Bad and The Modular 8:30 2 Stormchaser 12:43 3 The Secrets of Stonehenge 6:41 4 Tsing Tao 9:41 5 Space Hockey 11:01 6 Monster 9:25 SynGate | CD-r ANSD01
(DDL/CD-r 58:01) (V.F.) (Teutonic Ambient Trance and E-Rock)
I was more than enchanted by the music of EFSS (Jörg Erren, Bert Fleißig, Jochen Schöttler and Christian Steffen) and more recently that of Von Hallgath. And when I heard that Jörg Erren was behind this quite new project named Anders Jørgensen, appeared on the Syngate label at the end of 2015, I didn't hesitate to plunge. Flanked by his accomplice within the band of German synth-pop Dusk to Dawn; Andreas Kleinwächter (aka Andreas Larsen), Jörg Erren forms another dynamic musical project which dives literally into these rhythms dark and tortured by sound effects that we discovered in the universes of this new duo. And no, GREATEST HITS is not a compilation of success of an unknown band. It's rather a satiric title of which the meaning can feed all forms of interpretations. Strongly anchored in the very dynamic kind of Von Hallgath, GREATEST HITS is the fruit of 3 studio recording sessions where Jörg Erren and Andreas Kleinwächter have structured an EM on the improvisation scale of which the main rhythmic engine is a troop of sequenced pulsations which weave heavy rhythms. Structures of rhythm many times subdivided or multiplied by the explosions of pulsations and sequences which take on tones as musical than organic. Candy for the ears which love that when the minimalist art widens its ramifications beyond the anesthesia of linear and sedentary rhythms.
The Good, The Bad and The Modular starts this Anders Jorgensen's first album with a heavy and pulsatory rhythm, kind of Von Hallgath in Intersection. The riffs of keyboard and the jingles of percussions forge and adorn a slow rhythm. A sort of down-tempo that some percussions harpoon in a very good rock approach and which rolls like a train sliding on plains in a panoramic vision. A sequenced melody haunts the movement. It goes and comes, giving out its harmonies to some slow sibylline layers and the chirpings of soft oscillations. It's heavy, lively and melodious, and that starts pretty good this adventure. A troop of pulsations on a bed of cracklings, Stormchaser offers a lively structure knotted around a sequence of oscillatory pulsations. Electronic effects, trajectories of cosmic stars, ghostly layers and an absent choir add a depth to a nervous phase of rhythm which subdivides the shadows of its oscillations in order to weave a complexity between two adjacent but discordant phase of which the effect of overlapping makes dance our neurons more than our feet. I like The Secrets of Stonehenge and its minimalist line of pulsations which skip such as footsteps lost in a labyrinth. If the structure is similar to The Good, The Bad and The Modular, it offers variances in its drumming with neat and precise riffs which bring us back to the serial phases of Plastikman. The rhythm skips vigorously, the troop of pulsations seems to get fat by multiplying double linear jumps, even if surrounded with layers of ether which float with anesthetic airs. There also, the fingers and the neurons drum in symbiosis.
Tsing Tao is undoubtedly the most musical track in this GREATEST HITS. Based on the same principle of sequenced pulsations and railroad riffs which pound or grumble in mists of ether, the duet of friends releases here more crystal-clear pulsating sequences. Their airs shine and sparkle in an always threatening envelope and especially with some beautiful effects of percussions, weaving two axes of melodies which answer themselves harmoniously. A storm of white noises and hummings assails the introduction of Strange Hockey. Pulsations, like steady steps of a jogger, forge a panting rhythm of which the absence of breath is compensated with these heavy drones which turn over and enclose this pulsatory rhythm which releases some double of sequenced chords filled of organic chirping. A line of oscillatory, and more musical, sequences hangs on to this rhythm which becomes more fluid around the 4 minutes, forcing a melodious approach with a ritornello of chirpings which later will adopt again this sensation of Plastikman in The Secrets of Stonehenge. Three to four lines of rhythm weave a structure rich in nuances and in tones where synth lines draw sibylline airs whereas that heavy knockings forge a climate of anxiety, like in a good movie of suspense where the fright is meditating in an element of a psychosis movie. For the end, Monster presents an energetic structure with an oscillatory line which waves sharply in the jolts of bass percussions. Like a big snake fleeing a fire of bush, the rhythm is rapid and is decorated with agile percussions which click and flight lightly like the wings of a wooden butterfly. Synth layers, some are orchestral while others are made of Schulzian ether, caress the violence of the movement which is in the kind of ambient trance on a technoïd depth. A structure which is also on the edge of psychedelism with chirping sequences, organic effects and stroboscopic twists which peck at atmospheres always very near to be anesthetized by these mists of ether, otherwise calmed by some beautiful orchestral attempts. Heavy, lively and appealing (the play and the effects of percussions are in the kind of Jean-Michel Jarre in Chronology), Monster closes a first album which suits marvelously to this new generation of musicians which redefine the borders of the German EM. Ambient trance? EDM? Techno for zombies without appetite? The music of Anders Jorgensen, as that of Von Hallgath and of EFSS, is a wind of freshness for a style which is nevertheless so close to be banal.
Sylvain Lupari (January 20th, 2016) *****
Available at SynGate