As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message”. It holds true with instrumentation, as evidenced by these two releases.
Jon Durant plays fretted and fretless guitars, cloud guitar and effects as he teams with Stephan Thelan who brings in his own guitars, E-bow, loops and effects for seven compositions. The album is high on ambience akin to Eno with Fripp, or Eno with anyone else, with throbbing effects on “Vol De Nuit”, soft pickings and strums during “Sunrise” and spacy clouds teaming with Chuck Berry riffs during “Crossings”. Soundscapes abound on “Infinity” and stalactite drippings echoe on “Mise En Abyme”. Musical drapes.
Peter Schwalm plays synths, pianos, live treatments, programming and electronic percussion along with Markus Reuter on various touch guitars and electronics, with guest vocalist Sophie Tassignon cameoing with her “oohs” on the eerie atmospheres of “Lebewohl” and “Losgelosi”. Static pulses and fuzzy mechanations abound on “Der Aufbruch” and “Von Anbeginn” and clickety clacks sound like a bad carburetor on “Der Lang Weg”. Maybe a few dabs of 30 Weight Oil will get this thing running.