“Dark moods, hypnotic sequences and danceable beats, Von Hallgath seems to have found this famous sonic bridge which connects Berlin and Düsseldorf”
1 Open Phase 6:58 2 Dr Horsten 10:40 3 Burnt Wall 7:27 4 Addicted 5:35 5 Rails 6:32 Von Hallgath Music
(CD/DDL 37:16) (V.F.) (Dark ambient, Berlin School)
Pulsations soaked of resonances are buzzing all around our ears when the wild keys of Open Phase break out like a shower of lively beatings at the bottom of our eardrums. The pulsations are lively and heavy. They bang strongly in an energetic movement, a nearly hyper accelerated one, with a troop of sequenced keys which skip nimbly into keen minimalist kicks. Even that certain keys take the time to make a partner in crime stagger, in order to destabilize the placidity of this deep minimalist structure pierced by nuances and by cracks. The universe of INTERSECTION falls from then on between our two hemispheres with the same attraction as that of Easterfield. Synth pads and layers filled of electronic mists and of lines which spin as the spirals of a corkscrew appease the revolt of the keys, while that electronic percussions with robotics hammerings and other more crystal clear sequences this time are fluttering in the cooings of synth lines became more musical by now, sowing again the liveliness of Open Phase. Oh that I love it....
Between Berlin School and its old perfumes of modular/analog equipments and the rhythms of dance of Kraftwerk; Von Hallgath seems to have found this famous sonic bridge which connects Berlin and Düsseldorf. As much as I adored Easterfield, as much my ears have devoured the very first essay of Von Hallgath; INTERSECTION where the poles are confidentially connected even if around 2 years separate both opus. Dr Horsten besieges our ears with the metallic humming of a devilish industrial machine. The atmospheres are painted in black even if some crystalline drops of water ooze like balls of glasses running on a wall conveyor. The vibrating pulsations, the shadows of their echoes and the reflection of their waves abound in the rhythmic plans of Jörg Erren and Jochen Schöttler. They forge on Addicted an attractive sequenced melody which will eat your eardrums many days farther. And on Dr Horsten they muddle their tints, their nuances and their steps in a strange ambient dance where float synth lines of which the perfumes draw an atmosphere of a visceral fear, a little as if we were mislaid inside the labyrinth of a savant madman. The atmospheres are even more Mephistophelian in Burnt Wall where these usual dances of the sequences and their harmonies which blow loops raise the signature of Von Hallgath. Even if the universe is customary, the charms still seduce because of the diversity of the atmospheres which in the end are always dressed in black. Rails says it all! The influence of the symmetric beatings of Kraftwerk is dominant here with a pulsating movement rather fluid where the sequences and the momentums of harmonies full of saccades forge the rotation of a train which leaves the School of Düsseldorf to reach the one of Berlin, but in a more contemporary envelope. It's the best both worlds if actually we like both universes, their nuances and their ambiguities. Oh that I loved it....
Sylvain Lupari (July 11th, 2015) ***½**
Available at Von Hallgath Bandcamp