Bernd Kistenmacher
Contrasts Vol 1
No messing about with a floaty introduction here. We get straight into a scrapping sequence then its big brother comes along and yet another sequence is added over the top. In my recent review of the Keller & Schonwalder ‘Concerts’ CD I commented on how like Klaus Schulze the music sounded, well this album is in similar territory. Again we have very long tracks, this one, ‘Think about the Concept’ for instance lasting twenty three minutes. Just when you are becoming hypnotized by the sequences, chord progressions appear and very fine they are too, intensifying all the time. Fifteen minutes in we get a shuffling rhythm and the powerful chords die away. The rhythm takes us to a couple of minutes from the end when we are just left with pulsating sequences forming complex patterns.

‘Peace’ begins extremely quietly to the sound of processed piano but as the volume increases so does the complexity of the melody, lovely stuff. Selected notes are sustained to merge with faint synth touches underneath, very effective. After five minutes a host of shimmering effects are introduced, as if light is being fragmented into rainbows from a million droplets of water, over which is a meandering lead line sounding just like........, yes you’re well ahead of me. There are supposed to be “beautiful guitar clusters” by Gunter Schickert on this track but to a non technical bod like me it all sounds like synthesisers. ‘Remember, I come from Berlin’ makes use of a drum beat which gets faster and faster as the track becomes more intense. Once the track is in full flow there is only one person that comes to mind. I don’t suppose that we should be surprised really as the title is a bit of a give away that this is pure Berlin School and who better to copy than the king of that style? Finally we have ‘The End of the Record’, well CD anyway. We get more of the same but it is so superbly done.

I enjoyed every minute of this album but then I loved it all the first time around. Just a thought, we currently have a wave of bands who took Tangerine Dream as their initial inspiration and starting point from which to move on. Is it now time for people to rediscover Klaus as their starting point? The ambient bands used him as an influence and then went off on all sorts of interesting tangents. What Bernd is serving up here is much closer to the original than the modern ambient scene produced. It will be interesting to hear if Volume two of this series develops things any further. Apparently we will not have to wait very long before we find out. (DL)

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