“Driven in the frontiers of the good soft sequencer-based rhythms, this Eins is a must-have to all aficionado of vintage EM”
1 Magnetophon 8:22
2 Seltsam 8:32
3 Unter Wasser 19:47
(DDL 36:41) (V.F.)
(Berlin School)
In this vast ocean of sounds and music sold by mass, you must have a listening ear in order in order to catch everything around you. Despite of this, I miss one thing or two! Like this first album of Farbfelde. Composed and recorded at the Black Magnet Studio in the spring of 2013, in the spring of 2013, EINS is distributed by the Deep Distance label. Available in 300 vinyls in orange colour, the album is also available on the Bandcamp site of the Viennese artist. What EINS is for? The music primarily addresses to the die-hard fans of the Ohr period of EM. And I must admit that in the end, I discovered a very good album rich of a tonal color that seduces even more in a universe traced by these minimalist and hypnotic movements of the Berlin School.
Ambiospherical, the introduction of Magnetophon encloses us in a cave where ooze and float filaments of tonal drool. An organic life sparkles beneath these flows of exotic tones while a flute pulled out from a Mellotron wobbles from its songs like a flame without oxygen. A movement of the sequencer emerges from this lively magma not even 90 seconds further. The movement is fluid, like those ghost trains which used to irradiate those electronic rhythms of the analog years. Increasing its presence and accentuating its velocity, this rhythm climbs constantly under the charms of a synth that has stolen those flute songs to impose its presence with a very seductive tone. I'm in love with this pure vintage Berlin School when Farbfelde injects a slowing effect on the Magnetophon's race, which collects all the data from its introduction in order to spread them adroitly in an attractive 2nd part where the rhythm plays constantly on the speeds of its cadence. Bold and delicious! And the sound of the synth ... wonderful! Seltsam is also imbued with these old-time textures. The music is more in ambient mode with riffs of keyboards, sounding like an electric six-string, which roll in loops and organ pads whose flickering vapors are like incense sound and take us back to the time of the electronic Flower-power era.
Unter Wasser occupies the Face B and starts with these stellar waves that sweep a horizon devastated by implosions whose ghosts are impregnated in the sounds. The synth extends layers served with a tonality of a poorly fitted organ, giving a gloomy look to an introduction sculpted in the dark side of EM. A rhythm structure similar to that of Magnetophon gets out from my speakers a little before the 3 minutes to walk the walls of my living room. I note the presence of chimes, very discreet, in a structure vivified by the assured step of the sequencer and whose echo evaporates in juicy resonances. Blasts of flickering vapors accompany this very Berliner linear procession, as well as riffs reminiscent of Tangerine Dream influences in Farbfelde's textures. A wave perfumed of patchouli emerges and throws an anesthetic mist into the corridors of Unter Wasser, gradually slowing down its cadence to accompany it in a phase of ambiospheric elements around the 9th minute. Psychedelic elements join my ears for more or less 120 seconds, when Unter Wasser explodes by a sequencer in mode run after me. An even more thirsty rhythm draws a series of oscillating loops vivified by fury that even the multiple injections of anesthetic synth lines can tame and even slow down. This frantic race also restores all these sonic elements that have made my ears dependent of an album more seductive than unexpected while an imposing wave of ether leads Unter Wasser towards its ultimate final. Not too long in its 37-minute structure, EINS is a must-have to all vintage EM aficionado. A superb discovery, like I like to make!
Sylvain Lupari (August 31st, 2018) ****½* SynthSequences.com Available on Farbfelde's Bandcamp