“Noodle+ is above all for the aficionados of noisy vibes where the art to create music is not the priority in the world of Pete Farn”
1 Knospensprünge 4:32 2 Im Sumpf 5:30 3 Metallregen 4:05 4 Dickicht 3:25 5 Luftbewegung im Unterholz 4:01 6 Klangfluss 10:10 7 Schönklangs Farbreise 13:08 8 Elia 8:12 9 Spechtus 7:08 SynGate-Luna | CD-r pf16 (DDL/CD-r 60:13) (V.F.) (Experimental and abstract music)
For the synth users, the term Noodle means all these threads which hang and which connect in the inputs or outputs of other EM components. A mishmash of threads and cables which seems to us to be like the equivalent of a mini Babel tower so much that the intertwine of wires looks like a crossroad without ending. But for Peter Schaefer, this mess of electronic wires is far from being a heap of noodles in an immense plate of spaghetti. And those who know the sound fantasies of this master of abstract music understand at once where I am getting at. The vision that we have of these wires serves marvelously the fruits of the imagination, always very overflowing, of Pete Farn who offers us in NOODLE+ an album as perplexing as very difficult to ingest. An album where the noises and the atmospheres of a dead EM, not electronic effects, have precedence on an approach which began to be a bit more accessible with the album Aus-Flug which was released to the end of 2016.
Knospensprünge attacks literally our ears with a structure as much noisy as a guitarist who uses his fuzz wah-wah for the first time in the disorder of his room. The sounds spring in all forms with a shadow which croaks in a sound jumble where we imagine easily the hubbub behind ill-matched noodles of a synth. You were patient? And for little that we like these harmonies which are quite pale behind a wall of boisterous vibes, Im Sumpf is a title rather relaxing where is lying a delicate and shy melody strummed on a piano. The ambiences are a bit theatrical, kind of horror, with a specter which regurgitates its last sentence in the harmonies scattered from a piano and a bass in mode Jazz. Metallregen brings us back in the core of the sanctum of the sonic beast without charms. The title begins in mode ambient before colliding a wall of sounds as unappetizing as a plate of cold spaghettis. I look like a repulsive being? No, rather of an adviser for those who tries to understand the Pete Farn phenomenon! In fact, I like this universe, but in small doses, because Peter Schaefer peels the reach of the sounds like an architect who sees decorations with another eye. If there are more difficult titles, like Knospensprünge, Dickicht and Luftbewegung im Unterholz, even with its spasmodic tune, the music of Peter Schaefer stays a crossing between that of Centrozoon, percussions and guitar less, and Perceptual Defence for the avant-gardist and ambiosonic approach. Regarding that, Klangfluss is simply delicious. By far the best track here. Always in a contemplative mode, Schönklangs Farbreise is a little noisier on the other hand than Klangfluss. But these 2 long titles remain the most accessible in the universe of this album. Even in a tissue of atmospheres as floating and heterogeneous as these last 2 titles, Elia stays a puddle of noises which eventually irritates with acute rustlings and monotonous voices of which the only quality is to be out of the decoration. I'm a little torn regarding Spechtus. The moods are rather inviting, but the sounds and noises are also charming as a source of exasperation. It's pure Centrozoon, in order to well situated the reader, with a fascinating, I have to admit, chant of mechanical locusts in a night where the fauna of sleepless insects unites its stridulations in an ambience of wandering percussions.
Offered on the Bandcamp platform of SynGate Records, as well as in manufactured CD-r, NOODLE+ is above all for the aficionados of noisy vibes where the art to create music is not the priority in the world of Pete Farn. For the audacious and the curious! I won't rank it, because it’s not quite my style.
Sylvain Lupari (August 12th, 2017) SynthSequences.com Available at SynGate Bandcamp