Johannes Schmoelling – Images and Memory
CD, Viktoriapark Records, 2007
May 31, 2007 saw the release of this beautiful retrospective album, an anthology of Johannes Schmoelling’s work comprising a well chosen list of tracks from 1986-2006, also featuring several new, unreleased pieces.
In all, there are 23 tracks, nicely kicked off by “Zeit” and two more tracks of the 1986-album “Wuivend Riet”. While listening to these and all following tracks, it more than ever became clear to me what an inventive and skilled musician Johannes always has been. He’s got a great sense of composition and style, carefully building and refining his music layer after layer while implementing a lot of emotion into it.
To me, this distinct sense of melancholy and introspectiveness reached a highlight on his 2006 album “Instant City”, which took Johannes Schmoelling seven years to complete. Also the unreleased pieces (include three tracks on disc one and another three on the second one) are absolutely worth listening. Putting this double disc on is an absolute joy, as it makes your mind wander back to the days this great solo music saw the first light of day, later evolving into even more mature music in our present days.
By all means, this is a must-have release!
