Sogar | Stengel
List | CD
Listening to 'Stengel' puts one in mind of early Oval (circa 'Systemisch' and '94 Diskont'), but to write it off as just another release in the Oval vein would be doing it a great disservice. Melodies bubble and cascade, trickling from overheated processors. Sonic particles pop and click, underpinned by an ever-present miasma of 64 bit melody as warm fragments coalesce around slowly shifting digital undercurrents.
It's this contrast between larger, aural structural foundations and flickering surfaces which gives 'Stengel' its gently idiosyncratic character. It's as though Jurgen Heckel has opened up the floodgates since his first release 'Basal', on 12k, and allowed huge masses of watery chords to flow into the equation.
'st.10' opens with pinprick audio flickering above a heaving swathe of low end throb which builds slowly to a crescendo bathed in glorious static that gently eases into the teased out melodies of 'st.11', a series of drawn out chords that lumber gently over four and a half beautiful minutes.
'Stengel' is a mesmerising release that paves the way for a further 12k release in 2003 that will be eagerly anticipated.
[CM]
