If you've ever listened to Bach's Goldberg Variations and thought, "Pretty cool; could use some hot beats," then you're going to love Aufgang. They blend pianos, live drums, and techno-inspired electronics into invigorating displays of virtuosity, which evoke the club and the conservatory without really belonging to either one. (Their name is German for "stairway"-- an intermediate place, neither here nor there.) Given to singing out ecstatically, Aufgang's self-titled debut highlights the emotional extravagance these two different worlds have in common. It sounds kind of posh on paper, but it's actually really buoyant and fun. It always makes me picture an anthropomorphic grand piano in an old Warner Bros. cartoon, bouncing on rubbery legs to its own irrepressible music.
We're not talking about indie rockers pasting a few major thirds and fifths onto a preset. This is serious piano playing. Rami Khalifé and Francesco Tristano both trained at Julliard. Khalifé is the son of Lebanese composer Marcel Khalifé, and Tristano is well-regarded for his recorded repertoire (which includes The Goldberg Variations, in fact). Drummer Aymeric Westrich contributes a lively yet understated attack, somewhere between the four-on-the-floor throbs of house and rock music.
Aufgang's dual education, in the nightclub and the academy, shows in the historical and stylistic range of their music. "Barock" is baroque, while "Channel 7" (which has already been winningly remixed by John Talabot) pays homage to DJ Rolando's "Knights of the Jaguar" with wave after wave of divebombing trills courtesy of Westrich, whose cinematic loops add drama to many tracks. Blindingly happy piano playing fills in for swept strings, like Schroeder from "Peanuts" riding a huge caffeine rush. You can tell they've studied their Satie, Glass, Bartók, Prokofiev, etc., but their music doesn't feel much like a master's thesis. It's earnest and rapturous, gliding elaborately in fast, intelligible currents.
Usually, at least. If you expect heat from every track, then Aufgang is far from a perfect album-- the songs are deeply contrasted, with almost no middle ground between the thunderclaps and long, sullen rumbles. Only "3 Vitesses" really explores that broad middle range of intensity, with insistently ticking drums and sharp-cornered, diabolical piano intervals that continually dodge comfortable resolution. For attention-grabbers, you've basically got "Channel 7" and "Barock"; "Sonar", which has the album's most sure-footed build-up; "Good Generation", where rolling, 1970s-sounding pianos blur into sparkly electro; and "Aufgang", which admits a little rowdy acid into the mix.
At the other extreme, "Prelude Du Passé" crawls at a glacial pace, and "Soumission" closes the album with over 10 minutes of dissonant, decaying chords. It can be hard to get all the way through that one, knowing that the unstoppable "Channel 7" is about to wrap around. But the more austere tracks underscore something good about Aufgang. They don't just charge straight for the rafters; they pause, reconsider, begin again. They ask the listener to flip back and forth between patience and euphoria on cue, over and over. For those willing to do so, the gemlike clarity of the album's peaks feel even harder and brighter.
