“This album is sure to please fans of Berlin School-style electronic music with a progressive vision”
1 Memories of Yesterday Pt. 1 17:35
2 Londermolen #21 - The Live Mix 27:21
3 Memories of Yesterday Pt. 2 18:29
4 Memories of Yesterday Pt. 3 12:30
(DDL 75:52) (V.F.)
(Improvised Berlin School, EDM)
EM, especially Berlin School, is livelier than ever and we must thank the German trio, Broekhuis, Keller & Schönwälder, which seems to have become an inexhaustible source of high-level EM. SPACE COWBOYS @ JELENIA GORA is a recording of the concert resulting from the ME Ricochet Gathering festival which was held in the municipality of Jelenia Góra (Poland) on September 11, 2004. The prolific trio received the support of Spyra, on tracks 3 and 4, as well as Bill Fox playing the guitar for the finale of this concert.
Completely improvised, the concert begins like an orchestra tuning its violins. A nice flute line emerges from this cacophonous backwash and traces a thin harmonious stream which infuses a progressive rhythm. Gradually, a minimalism hymn, hammered by bass but precise percussions, draws a melodious theme as languid as catchy which deviates on a soft techno approach with superb orchestrations. Barely the first 7 minutes elapsed, the trio takes us to bubbling rhythms where violin mellotrons cross flute breaths on nervous synths and tempered percussions which make Bas Broekhuis the most fashionable percussionist in EM. Memories of Yesterday Pt. 1 is a heavy orchestrated track on ever-changing rhythms that embrace a relative tranquility on Londermolen # 21. This title is creatively slow where its evolutionary improvisation shows a solid bond between the 3 musicians. A flowing rhythm, allowing the trio to exploit a sound universe with methodical arrangements, is inundated with sweet fluty passages which pour out towards a more aerated flow, while retaining its spirit of improvisation. Memories of Yesterday Pt. 2 is the cream of the crop! Following a mellotron intro with fragrances from the 70's, the rhythm accelerates and takes on a galloping growth on spectral breaths with very spontaneous percussions. A brilliant and explosive track where the percussions hammer throbbing and exhilarating synth layers taken in the heart of the best passages of Berlin School. A brilliant title, as we rarely hear! Memories of Yesterday Pt.3 ends a solid performance by the German trio. An eclectic intro title on a solemn background where the tones are dark and enveloping. The notes abound on an inanimate movement which is accentuated on a disheveled measure to embrace a crazy and disordered rhythm.
SPACE COWBOYS @ JELENIA GORA is an album that is sure to please fans of Berlin School-style electronic music with a progressive vision. There are superb moments which show the overflowing imagination of these 3 musicians, testifying to a complicity which year after year astonishes by this creative and highly stylized prolificacy.
Sylvain Lupari (July 06th, 2007) ***½**
Available at Ricochet Dream Music