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With his 16th album “Staub”, Wolfram Spyra presents the electronic community a different yet daring sonic experiment. What initially started out as something organized, logical and back-to-basics ended up more and more chaotic, deranged and unpredictable as the project evolved. There’s no sign of compromise on anything on the 50-minute release: seems Mr Spyra enjoyed himself a lot while experimenting with an old Juno 6 (six voice polyphonic analog) synth, exploring it ins and outs while triggering/modulating its sequencer patterns. Still, the post-electronic, retro-sounding outcome with scents of contemporary classical music and Krautrock features links to vintage Schulze and Kraftwerk. The opening piece “Dusk” already made me think of the melancholic-angled shoegazer ambient of Ulrich Schnauss, while there’s some tweaked Berlin School sequencing sketched out on the title track.“Glacier” proves another challenge with its quite unusual, strange and unpredictable modulated sequencer patterns. Harmonic and beautiful classic Em is encountered on the excellent “Etude”, where spherical mellotron textures and flute complement a spatial, upfront sequence. Gentle spheres and evolving sequencer patterns also make up the emotive “Ecce Homo”, which comprises both brightness and more contemplative flavours. It’s another great piece that proves magical with headphones. “Flur” takes on a bit more minimalist shape while the sound design is in constant fluent motion. Overlooking the whole album I feel the stillness and delight of the nighttime reflect nicely in many tracks and passages on this excellently mixed and mastered album that keeps softly ringing in my ears after the last few notes. So do yourselves a favour and buy this gem if you like vintage sound (design) and meticulously treated old-school sequencing. |
| Website: www.derspyra.de
You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Spyra artist page
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