This, I imagine, is going to be on my top ten of the year. It captures an atmosphere that I haven't yet heard on an Erstwhile release. Melody and harmony are central focuses here, although it's not by any sense of the word traditional. Kai creates breathy hisses and airy, winding melodies shadowed in multiphonics and microtonal inflections. The harmonics sometimes act as the center focus, with the fundamental tone shifting and acting as the shadow to the high harmonic pushing its way out at the top. Burkhard's acoustic guitar shifts between angular, arpeggiated harmonics, beautiful but dissonant chordal accompaniment, to scrapes and scratches with the tones barely peeking their way out. The two shift to other instruments as well, such as piano, electronics, and vibraphone (used to wonderful effect on the final piece). Even in the more textural sections, tones are the central focus. The mood is by no means singular, with field recordings often surprising and acting as a bridge which is picked up upon musically in the next passage. These field recordings are never tacked on, and always seem essential to where the music goes. For example, the thunderous bridge between the end of the second piece brings us to the low throbbing tones of the beginning of the third; the car trip we take in the sixth piece ("Ausflug") brings us to the serene conclusion. Throughout, the line between composition and improvisation is blurred, especially in the aforementioned final piece, "Weißt Du noch unser Lied".
Morton Feldman's influence is clearly heard, especially on the aforementioned closer and the wonderful and hysterically titled "Sexy M.F.". While the latter track clearly uses some of Feldman's musical tricks, his mood is present throughout the disc. Usually when I see Feldman references, there just seems to be grab at the surface-level of his aesthetic; this succeeds in capturing something buried a bit deeper in his music, a crystalline musical calm that is present in even the dark, dissonant passages. Those who ever wondered about the Feldman influence in EAI should hear this disc, as it makes it particularly clear case for it.
All in all, one of the finest discs I've heard this year. Highly, highly recommended.
[edit: I should note, this isn't out until mid-October, but can be acquired as a lossless file with a preorder from erstwhile]
