Mohn / Mohn
CD / LP
Kompakt / Released April 2012
What does it sound like?
Wolfgang Voigt and Jorg Berger take a potentially fateful decision and attempt to marry sound art-esque arrangements with popular music, and wind up pulling it off. Which isn’t that surprising, given the two men’s previous credentials.
The first is known to many within the context of names like Gas, Protest, and Kafkatrax, whilst the latter has been labelled The Modernist by some. Both have an extensive production catalogues that showcase a real desire to push things forward, Steve Reich style, and prior to this the pair have worked together on classic LPs like 1996’s Las Vegas.
History lesson over this is our latest voyage into their unknown. It’s a trip that calls off at Bladerunner, futurist opera, ethereal-industrial ambience, and space-jazz (all cascading chords and delicate cymbals), for want of better, less vomit-inducingly ridiculous labels. The lack of ways to describe the contents is indicative of the quality in this instance though, with the album playing out like an essay on meditative sounds people can create with synths and effects that still boast accessible melodies and unpretentious moods.
What highlights can I expect to hear?
To say Ambientot has the most pronounced drums on here would be misleading, as most of the disc is redundant when it comes to traditional percussion. Still the light snare-brush and reduced kick that pads gently in the background of said track is refreshingly more rhythmic than anything else on here, and accentuates the lush, cosmic atmospheres and downtempo pianos perfectly. Definitely a keeper then.
Where can I buy it?