“A very good album where the words audacity and experimental take on their full meaning”
1 Laajat Sointipinnat 27:17
2 Hitaasti Vellova 24:58
3 Rappeutuva Tila 25:41
Digital Bonus (37:01)
4 Leikkisä Kiemurtelu 7:38
5 Mahtavat Äänipilvet 12:00
6 Rytmiset Rakenteet 17:22
(DDL/CD-(r) 77:58) (V.F.)
(Experimental EM)
Theremin effects that stretch out in twisted filaments and whose sharp vocals are like the perverse lamentations of Dracula's virgins. Berlin School-style electronic music (EM) that crosses the boundaries of Krautrock and of psychedelic rock. Michael Brückner's creativity, both in terms of improvised structures and a mix that makes us question this orientation. And so on... PUURO JA SILTA is a little gem for fans of music frees of any bonds that redefines the boundaries of audacity. While Brückner needs no introduction, Achim Breiling is first and foremost a seasoned critic of progressive and avant-garde music. His reviews can be found on the excellent German webzine Babyblaue Seiten. The 2 musicians - Breiling plays Moog synth and Theremin - met in Brückner's studios in spring 2017 and concocted improvisation sessions that are the backbone of PUURO JA SILTA, a Finnish title that means Brei & Brücke in German. To complete the album, Michael invited Lars Tellmann to play guitar on Rappeutuva Tila, and he is also featured on one of the 3 bonus tracks, Leikkisä Kiemurtelu. Volker Lankow was also invited to play drums on these 2 tracks, as well as on Laajat Sointipinnat. The album offers us 3 long structures of improvisations, which the German musician recently edited, mixed and mastered. They are built around long openings filled with 70's electronic dialects and other such effects, leading to phases of evolving rhythms interspersed with zones of cosmic-psychedelic, if not experimental and/or avant-garde, ambiences. In short, a very good album, available via the German label SynGate, which is not for all ears!
In fact, it's an introduction based on Kraftwerk-style dialogues and electronic effects that introduces our ears to the dimensions of Laajat Sointipinnat, a track that faithfully represents PUURO JA SILTA's progressive and experimental EM framework. The sequencer immediately makes its presence felt with a vividly undulating structure, like the Berlin School model, with a suspended rhythm that makes our neurons work from ear to ear. Various electronic effects: lots of babbling and other avian language effects, twisted filaments, signs of distress and arpeggios lost in this sonic molasses, adorn this long introduction which gradually lets in Lankow's percussions to drum up a structure that flirts slightly with a tribal rhythm from an unknown planet. We're an inch short not to describe this rhythm as bewitching. Time is short, because it evaporates in the dust of contaminated riffs and other sound effects whose essences belong to a distant psychedelic community in search of its identity. Our ears thus flirt with a sonic nothingness dominated by the curve of a bass layer from which the slow undulations crawl like a sinister vampire intent on sucking the root out of our eardrums, taking in all the subtleties of the chords, riffs and effects of a synth/keyboard/guitar's triumvirate. A few ghostly outbursts, with no irruptions of pure rhythm and initiated by a series of riffs, attempt to reactivate this slow atmospheric passage that veers gently towards an astral ocean around the 16th minute. We're in Laajat Sointipinnat's most musical space, with a gentle sensation of drifting between stars and the reflections of their echoes. And it's these that quietly awaken the sleeping sound mass of PUURO JA SILTA's longest track, just before its 19th minute. The cadenced chords dance and twirl before the percussions catch up, hammering away at the epicenter of good cosmic rock that's close to the essence of Krautrock. Here again, it's a very short passage of barely 2 minutes, before the track returns to its atmospheric musical bearings, its cosmic texture chiseled by twisted drones.
This is how Hitaasti Vellova's overture is constituted, with some of the same elements as Laajat Sointipinnat. An organ makes its appearance, imposing its presence with heavy layers that undulate in a cosmic setting. The mellotron follows suit with misty orchestrations. Theremin and synthesizer unite their radioactive airs in this atmospheric opening, which awakens around the 6-minute mark with muffled pulses of a voracious bass layer. This deafened rhythm is surrounded by good percussive elements that clatter and resonate all around. The mellotron throws nice fluty odes, misty banks and gothic voices that develop, reminding us of a certain trio of mythical musicians in the 70's, Tangerine Dream. The synth unleashes loops that coo in symbiosis with the shimmering arpeggios that feed the track's cosmic backdrop. They coo all alone around the 12-minute mark. A short phase that resets the rhythm, now more accentuated by the dynamism of the bass sequences. The synth still chants with the stars, and the mellotron is as superb as ever. Without quite losing its rhythmic essence - at the very most, it diminishes in intensity - Hitaasti Vellova slips into an experimental-cosmic-atmospheric phase, before reactivating itself in a dramatic rhythm shaken by percussions and synthesizer surges in a finale that lives up to the perfumes of this first album by the Breiling/Brückner duo. Rappeutuva Tila features an atmospheric introduction fueled by the synthesizer, which still articulates the electronic language of the 70's, while the mellotron whistles tunes fit for a dreamer rubbing the sand of his feet on an ocean shore. The guitar plants riffs that roll in loops with a good harmonic degree, while the percussions resonate with linear strikes in a cosmic rock conducive to floating between two rhythms. A pulse line vibrates and beats, creating this spasmodic, static rhythm. The synth spits out waves of caustic reverberations and the mellotron sharpens its tunes with a flute-like essence. We sense an effervescence that is slow to explode with a long passage where Volker Lankow's arms warm up as the synth exults its misshapen chants. The anticipated explosion gets closer to our ears, only to unlock into a furious cosmic electronic rock after the 14th minute. The percussions are solid and driving. The guitar, always hungry for corrosive riffs, chews our eardrums while sculpting its solos. It's an intense 4 minutes of wacky rock that hits our ears before Rappeutuva Tila returns to those finals filled of sounds and of musical experiments, more aggressive than the openings, in this album that requires a few listens before finding its sources of charms. There are plenty, rest assured!
Always generous, Michael Brückner offers almost 40 minutes of additional music, available only for download, taken from PUURO JA SILTA sessions and post-production (editing, mixing and mastering). Leikkisä Kiemurtelu is a quiet track featuring a mellotron and keyboard duo. Chamber electronic music! Mahtavat Äänipilvet takes us back to the album's dimensions with a highly experimental, avant-garde approach. Even without rhythm, the moods and music are quite intense. Rytmiset Rakenteet is the jewel in the crown of these bonus tracks. It's a cosmic electronic rock with rhythmic sequences, stationary and/or driving, in a musical and sonic envelope that always flirts with a very progressive vision. The synths provide excellent solos here. The percussions here is drummed up by Michael who, alone and/or with guest artists, always manages to put interesting stuff between our ears. Here, you just have to take the time to tame PUURO JA SILTA's progressive, cosmic electronic rock structures, that are interspersed with bold experimental visions, to appreciate its often out-of-the-ordinary dimensions.
Sylvain Lupari (August 24th, 2023) *****
Available on SynGate Bandcamp
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