True critical consensus is rare, but I've yet to read a bad word about Wolfgang Voigt's Kompakt label. If Voigt had to set aside making music as Gas to get Kompakt off the ground, figuratively trading in his mixing console for a shiny Steelcase desk piled with telephones and staplers, at least he's done it right. Kompakt is emerging as a model electronic label, showing the upstarts how it should be done: present a unified visual aesthetic, release an impressive variety of music that manages to retain identifying reference points, and offer a number of excellent compilations that develop and refine the overriding approach.
Last year's Pop Ambient 2001 compilation was the first to showcase the ambient side of the Kompakt coin. The fantastic collection offered two tracks by Germany's Markus Guentner, who has now released his debut album, In Moll, on the label. The initial buzz surrounding the record had Guentner picking up the torch of hyper-textural cloud music where Gas had left it with Pop.
And it's true: Guentner's approach has similarities to Pop, especially on In Moll's first half. Keyboards focus on spiraling patterns of repeating melody, precisely mixed clusters of noise highlight the music's tactile qualities, the 4/4 thump pokes in its well-manicured head on a track or two. Mind you, I'm not complaining about the similarities-- Guentner does Gas-eous ambient extremely well.
But there's much more to Guentner than mimicry. While the timbral quality of the music sure feels familiar, the overall tone of In Moll is unsettling. Rather than conjuring images of vast open space, Guentner seems to bounce around inside a concrete box. There is, for example, a distinct claustrophobic edge to the second track (the pieces are not titled). For all the squishy sonic seasoning it contains, the piece sounds like a recording of the boiler room that powers some bleak animated world. The wheezes and throbs of the machine seem to echo in some tight, dank space: industry triumphs over nature.
The fourth track begins with two spare chords that suggest a peaceful "calm after the storm" kind of atmosphere, then takes a left turn as the pastoral chords are overwhelmed with a swell of prickly static. The fifth track is the glitchiest of the bunch, as several distinct and individually compelling swatches of music are stitched together into complex overlapping patterns. Track six adds a synthetic orchestral grandeur that reminds me a little of... well, Vangelis, really-- there's something epic and dignified about 'strings' that aren't even trying to sound real. Even In Moll's closing piece, a patient exercise in drone and assorted electronic percussion, manages to stay engaging for its sixteen minutes.
Guentner's debut album is an impressive work of atmospheric electronica, and In Moll threads another feather into Kompakt's cap.
