navel

navel ~ meditating amoebas lp (not on label, 2024)

very far out. experimental space ambient. cosmonauts. oceans of sounds, drones, visions. since 1998.

navel is gage & floyd (günter schlienz & floyd wenzel)

no hay nada que me haga más feliz que los regalos inesperados en forma de vinilo. suena "transfer, die räume dazwischen" y ya en seguida percibes algo familiar: nuestro duo favorito de ciencia ficción está de vuelta. meditating amoebas es el equivalente auditivo del agua en el espacio exterior. un oasis rodeado de infinitos planetas y agujeros negros y meteoritos, pero también de árboles y pajaritos. new age, field recordings, notas de piano y guitarras acústicas. y esa calidez que siempre desprende todo lo que hace günter schlienz. al contrario de lo que ocurre con la música de günter en solitario, creo que requiere de una escucha más atenta para percibir todos los detalles (¿es tal vez más abstracta?), pero una vez lo haces te das cuenta del suave equilibrio entre lo orgánico y lo subterráneo. escuchar ya no es un ejercicio pasivo, es una colaboración. de la misma manera que un lector colabora con un escritor para dar vida a un libro....escuchad si no 'transfer, die räume dazwischen'.

aferrándose a lo familiar del universo, navel combina sonidos oscuros y ambientales con notas aisladas de piano y guitarras acústicas tan acogedoras como una puesta de sol. el broche final lo pone "ist das hier", que google traduce como "¿está esto aquí?" y me encanta, no imagino un título ni un final más bonito. 

...edición limitada de muy pocas copias que se van en un plis plas📀📀

listen / support

interview with guenter schlienz

Guenter Schlienz (Stuttgart, Germany) is known for his vast catalogue of tape & cdr releases on different great labels around the world – Sacred Phrases, SicSic, Goldtimers, Constellation Tatsu, etc. He is the man behind wonderful Cosmic Winnetou label, releasing all kinds of experimental/drone/ambient artists — maybe not as frequently as we'd like, but each time pleasing the taste of any tape music geek. Creating his minimalist compositions by means of d.i.y modular synths, tape loops and field recordings, Guenter achieves the serenity of classic ambient works, while keeping the vibe of 70s kosmische musik (think Cluster or Harmonia) and sometimes reaches the territories of academic minimalism, exploring the sound as ding an sich, inspiring the listener to invent its own narrative. Being part of Navel band since mid 90s, Guenter's place in music world has a long, but still almost unknown story which continues nowadays with further explorations of all kinds of ambient music.

~~~

Pied Paper: First of all, I'm curious about how it all started for you — ambient music, synth building, tape releases, etc. I know that you were involved in many other projects before, call you tell a bit about them too?

GS: phew, where did it all started… definitely many many moons ago. was active mid till end 90s in some heavy stoner psychedelic rock band. was the guy responsible for producing some "far out sounds" with his guitar and some delay pedal. so there already was this drone element in what i did. but far from recognizing it as this for myself. bit later during the same decade i did a session with a guy who did guitar and singing for another noise rock outfit. we just fiddled around with our guitars and with every pedal we could get our hands on. we recorded our very first session with some broken 4track and quite liked the results. after presenting the finished cdr people came back and reported "this is quite cool drone music". so yep, that's how we learned the name of this style. and after having the name we were able to dig deeper and learned names like Stars of the Lid, Flying Saucer Attack, Brian Eno etc pp. this guitar drone project of us is called Navel and we are still recording and doing live shows.

beginning of the 00's i quit doing this rock band stuff, so there was plenty time to do some other things. after getting introduced to all this amazing kraut and kosmische musik (during a navel live show in france by an english man, but that's another story) there was the idea to do some kind of electronic music solo. so i needed an instrument, and after bit of research i discovered that the schematics for some modular synthesizer would be something i could manage with the training in electronics i already had. so i started soldering, first quite simple filters, later more and more sophisticated modules.

the tapes, yep, fast forward to the end of last decade. stumbled over this tape scene thing by accident via the internet (god bless it). those days i was pretty frustrated and bored by the music all the labels and magazines i knew presented, so this occurred to me like a big relief. yes. so many people and projects and bands and labels are doing fantastic stuff, exactly the music i love, right at the moment, and sell it for very low money to people all around the world. yes! couldn't belief my eyes. that the favorite medium of all those labels and projects were cassettes don't really bothered me (of course i had this "ugh? on tape? strange…" moment like everybody else i guess), because i never really stopped using this media since my early childhood days.

I like to dramatize a bit some things some times, but this discovery of the tape label scene kind of saved my artistic live. it gave me so much energy and confirmation and countless hours of joy during listening sessions that i got the feeling that i have to give something back. hence i started my own tape label.

Pied Paper: Your music sounds almost academic sometimes, especially works as Organ Studies, Loop Studies and Furniture Sounds — which, as I understand is a homage to Eric Satie. But your name is strongly associated with "underground tape scene", as we call it. Did you ever thought about making your music open for the interpretations, to write it down on a paper maybe, letting the others perform it?

GS: huh, not sure if i my music sounds bit like academic music. for sure i'm quite interested in this genre, mean contemporary composers with "classical" musical education composing pieces for concert halls and operas and stuff. like their approach to their art through quite rigid concepts, their huge knowledge about musical structures and about music of many centuries and cultures. perhaps you see my enthusiasm for their rigidness shining through my stuff? that would be a compliment for sure, at least in my opinion. and of course, if there would be a small ensemble crazy enough to perform it, i would love to write a score for them (though not sure if i would like to conduct it). but i guess your name must be some lou reed or some other in the same league to be honored like this. actually i'm pretty sure that many of those academic contemporary composers would be happily release their stuff on tape if they would only know this special scene around it.

Pied Paper: It's clear that ambient music is a wide field for interpretation, same sound can be perceived in different ways depending on the artwork, liner notes, track titles, etc. Can you tell something about your own perception of your music? Does it have some stories within, or it's just abstract form which everyone can fill with its own meaning?

as you see in the answer of the last question i like some kind of concept around the music. and if this concept even gets its visual equal with the artwork i'm more than happy. so of course, there is a story in every piece. but hey, its music, its a form of art, so who am i to dictate what some listener and spectator wants to see in it? isn't it the very meaning of any art, that the consumer of it knits his very personal meaning to it?

actually i am not able to describe what i hear in my music anyway. for me the answer to this question would lead to some kind of poem, some painting, some huge novel, some dance or any other arty abstraction. in none of the mentioned techniques 'm very good at, so please, listen to the music.


Pied Paper: Imagine a situation when you someone asks you to create music with specific mood, theme, etc. — like for a movie scene or something — would it be easy for you? What you enjoy more - improvisation or composition?

already did this, i mean creating some music for a specific use (to earn some money), and hey, that is pretty hard work (and hard earned money)! to create some music without some customers needs to be satisfied, just the personal ones, isn't really easy to do as well, but much more gratifying for the soul. its an privilege to be able to do this, and i have a (pretty time consuming) bread and butter job to create the circumstances to fulfill it.

can't really separate those strategies during my performances, both live and during my recording sessions. its always a mixture of plan and being ready to include some coincidences respectively enlightenments. actually my believe is, gained through many observations and talks about such things, that nearly every work in which i am interested in is created this way.

Pied Paper: I know that you enjoy recording outdoor, do you have any specific set-up for this?

not really specific, the equipment just have to have some possibility to work battery driven. luckily my modulars fall into this category. just to improve the handling of such adventure i have build my modulars as small and compact as possible, and since a couple of months a work on some modules who will be included into some water proofed case.


Pied Paper: Probably you've noticed that releases of first wave of cassette drone/ambient in 2009-11 was mostly lo-fi and many of same artists still doing tapes nowadays came to much cleared and well-produced sound - is that natural growth or trying to be more "mainstream"?

yes, i'm aware of this development as well. i think it just was some other group of people with bit different background which had been running those labels you' mention. In those early days of the reemerging of this medium the leading actors had had mostly a background in the noise scene. hence the tape as favorite medium, hence the cheap and ugly aesthetics of the chosen instruments. these different (don't like to ad some other evaluative adjective) sounding tapes of lately are from people without this background, they just take over the torch and work with it out of their musical socialization. so in my opinion it is either "natural growth", this sounds like some kind of improvement who isn't any need for, nor a try to reach broader audiences. the good stuff of recently is produced by people who are just as true to their own style as their ancestors had been, and therefore it is as important and equal beautiful as the old stuff.


Pied Paper: As a label owner, can you tell how many demos you receive? Which kind of styles you receive most? I'm asking because it seems that ambient/psych/drone music isn't that popular anymore - I see tons of vaporwave/webpunk tapes at new-born labels, while such imprints as Stunned, Tranquility tapes, Goldtimers are long gone (or maybe it's just old man's talk, huh).

yes, and i'm very happy about it, i receive quite a lot of demos. always love to get some new sounds for my ears. mostly the artists are very good informed about the style of the music i usually release and about the aesthetics i'm interested in. perhaps you are right, there are less people out there which do their own style of ambient/psych/drone as perhaps eight years ago, but i'm not sure about that. and as i stated in the last paragraph i think those vaporwave labels and the like took the torch of the cassette celebration and run with it their own way. and this is a good thing. who needs the 16th or whatever version of the emeralds (insert here the name of your favorite release of those years)? isn't this exactly what have happened with pop and rock music and what makes this stuff sometimes unbearable to listen to?

Pied Paper: And what are your plans for the Cosmic Winnetou in the foreseeable future?

prepare my next batch right now which will be released in a couple of weeks. but after this 13th cosmic winnetou bundle of cassettes i will need a hiatus, unfortunately. i love to do the label work, but it is very time consuming. have lots of projects for this year, music and private stuff, so i have to pull the brakes to this project for this year. but really looking forward to restart the tape label with new ideas and energies end of this year.


Pied Paper: Do you ever think about future of music? Is it possible to invent something new, or we are doomed to retro-mania, returning to same tunes from different angles?

of course there will some day somebody release some music which haven't been heard before and will blow all of us completely into the void. don't know which day this will happen, but i'm pretty sure someday it will. just look around, not only the music is stuck into retro mode. clothing, hair style, performing arts, pictorial arts, industrial design, i think that in our days nearly every form of artefacts are done with quite old ideas, just a few new kind of tools here and there. the whole mood, you can call it "zeitgeist" if you like, is like "let's try to preserve what we have", not "perhaps this is a better idea for the future, let's work on it". in my opinion everything is linked together somehow, and we have this retro mania since the 90s, starting with this global change of the modus vivendi. but nothing is forever, so i'm sure this will change someday. these thoughts are just my 50cents about a very complex question. but yeah, i think about this, and love to exchange ideas about this kind of topic.


Pied Paper: Humans already sent some music with space probes - which titles would you choose for such mission? I know you won't choose Wagner, huh :)

really nice question, this is. indeed already thought about that, and i think the nasa did a quite good job with the "golden record" for the voyager mission. very good selection which shows how wonderfully diverse sounds humans are able to produce, and each and all of them aim at the listeners heart. but always wondered if it would be perhaps a good idea to send some field recordings of this strange planet into the void, and f so, which i would chose.

some people laughing, some people fighting, a mother singing her baby to sleep, the audience at a soccer game, a sundown at the shore of a calm sea with waves and cicades and everything? what else?


Pied Paper: Okay, that's it — you can send high fives here or add something if needed! Thank you!

hey, high five to you and many thanks for those questions! took my a while to type the answers, because you found some topics and ideas i love to share my thoughts on it. and of course many thanks for your support!

perhaps i would like to ad a big "thank you" to all the readers of those lines, time is precious and i'm happy that you waste it reading them. and a big "thank you" to all the people who listen to my music and perhaps even bought the cassettes and cds and vinyls with my music on it. to know that somebody out there cares about my music means a lot to me. hugs.

guenterschlienz.de

selected albums:

guenter's bandcamp

sterne uber der stadt

organ studies

tape studies

autumn

guenter schlienz / mortuus auris & the black hand

guenter schlienz ~ loop studies (s.i.n.k. cds, 2014) 

"following a series of highly acclaimed releases on Gift Tapes, SicSic and his own Cosmic Winnetou label, among others, mood-modular maestro Guenter Schlienz presents a collection of works utilising tape loops and acoustic instruments as well as his familiar modular undulations. 

It is a rich combination that takes Guenter's sound off through music halls, into the clouds and then back again to the self. this is deeply focussed and reflective work that rounds off this series of 10 s.i.n.k. cds releases in perfect stye. study hard, loop soft." s.i.n.k. cds

listen ~ buy

mortuus auris & the black hand ~ digestiv komune / sand timer (s.i.n.k. cds, 2014)

"Peter Taylor's understated yet consistently powerful drone project has been releasing since 2008, with this gastrodynamic double-cd collection bringing together a suite of digestion-themed pieces and a continuous track of seven food-based parts (Gochujang, Tempeh, Edamame, Tamari, Doenjang, Tianmianjiang, Miso). 

on Digestiv Komune, shimmered drone cushions hollow chimes and tribo-industrial drum patterns, imparting a clarity of (outer) space ambient to the inner realms of body feelings. the movement of the second course, Sand Timer, through eased-up orchestration, foreign murmurings, stuttering drone and rupturing sample work, makes you think someone spiked that first course... chow down, feel it in your gut." s.i.n.k. cds

listen ~ buy

"Guenter Schlienz is an ambient genius" Matt Kattman (The Rainbow Body)

...mil veces sí.

günter schlienz

günter schlienz ~ contemplation (preservation, 2014) 

"for a decade, Schlienz has created meditative works of epic reach with intimate, reflective resonance. his individual style comes from an ever-searching sense of experimentalism that stems not only from his sense of composition but his creation of his own modular synthesisers and other instruments. 'contemplation' is Schlienz’s most personal yet, acting as a compendium that ties the various strands of his musical pursuits together in a new and fresh vision. in a way, 'contemplation' is a record of how he has developed as an artist and as himself. 

  

while the cosmic touch is ever present, earthy and pastoral scenes are never far from Schlienz’s gaze. Norm Chambers ~ aka Panabrite and a kindred spirit ~ contributes to the swelling, soaring 'humble', 'numb' is bubbling and bucolic in feel and 'shimmer' is a soft, sweet paen to the evening. reaching further, 'lament' is a majestic drone, raga-like in its deep focus, and 'janitor' is a final hazy delight of floating tones and starry dub-like echoes. ultimately, 'contemplation' is in equal thrall to joy, melancholy, nature and space. it’s a radiant poise Schlienz holds throughout, finding a peaceful plane." preservation

sé que ya poco queda por decir de Günter Schlienz, y que demasiado a menudo me sale por la boca la palabra bonito. pero es que todas las canciones tocadas por la varita de Günter Schlienz lo son. bonitas, modulares, minimales, delicadas (y cuando crees que no puede componer nada más bonito resulta que aparece 'dust'....bajad hasta la número ocho). también sé que no fue la emoción del primer momento, ni las ganas de encontrar algo que nos enamorase y nos abriese nuevos y fascinantes horizontes como en su momento lo hicieron Jewelled Antler, Bruce Langhorne, Valerie Webb & Paul Labrecque, Cap'n Jack, la onda expansiva del snow folk, las tonadillas de golden apples of the sun, y después Dolphins into the Future y la 2010 tape-scene nostalgia, y Bill Doob, Former Selves o Floating Gardens o Panabrite y la telaraña infinita de conexiones e influencias y la etiqueta mágica library music que nos llevaba de vuelta al pasado...el disco número once de nuestro duende 'consentido' favorito en poco menos de cinco años me sigue causando el mismo impacto. Günter es siempre presente, encariñarse con un sonido, saber que todo nos dirigía hasta aquí, hasta él. de cuando tienes la certeza de que haga lo que haga, será lo más bonito que vayas a escuchar nunca. la guinda esta vez viene de la mano de Norm Chambers (Panabrite), que presta su Rhodes y su sintetizador en la indescriptiblemente indescriptible 'humble'.

listen ~ buy

günter schlienz

 guenter schlienz ~ treehut visions (sacred phrases, 2014)

"may the complex rhythms, supported by its troughs and troches, mend what you’re missing. It gives another half of what you need. gently, breezy, slightly elevated, languid, nonchalant, with you. for you.  

recorded Spring 2013 in Stuttgart/Germany with a DIY modular synthesizer. mastered by Niko. inspired by childhood memories and Jack Kerouac's "Visions" novels.   

"the world of raging action and folly and also of gentle sweetness seen through the keyhole of my eye." sacred phrases

ahora ya es como si nos hubiéramos acostumbrado, pero lo que hace Günter Schlienz de verdad que es de otro mundo. 'treehut visions' roza la delicadeza de 'through the music to the self' y añade algunas grabaciones de campo como en 'the norman tapes'. pero es sólo una ínfima parte de todo lo bonito que hay en él. pajaritos, mareas, sintetizador modular, unas campanas lejanas y nunca una nota más alta que la otra. la sutilidad. a veces pienso que si no hubiera surgido microphones gracias a la emoción que supuso aquella explosión de free folk ('golden apples of the sun' y Jewelled Antler siempre siempre), seguramente unos años más tarde 'tape studies' y 'through the music to the self' me hubieran inspirado para crearlo. y hoy 'treehut visions' con su preciosa mezcla de hojas verdes y marrones. se podrán recordar muchos discos, pero pocos son tan especiales y emanan tanta belleza. es como cuando ves la portada verde acuosa de 'science of the sea' de Jürgen Müller, o la portada verde musgo de 'secondary efflorescence', o el astrónomo observador de 'many moons'...o la azul cielo de 'on sea-faring isolation' de los delfines y no puedes pasar de largo. los compararías mil veces y los escucharías otras mil. te obligan a quedarte ahí, deshaciendo el ovillo de nombres que aunque sea sólo de refilón te recuerdan a ese sonido: la electrónica analógica que siempre habíamos soñado y de la que habíamos estado muy cerca. puro magnetismo.

Günter es ya una leyenda a pequeña escala, la eterna referencia del renacer de los teclados modulares. hay muchos favoritos (Panabrite, Pulse Emitter, Lieven Moana, Paul Skomsvold) pero él pone algo más, no se sabe qué. los sintes artesanos al aire libre y en contacto con la naturaleza que siempre parecerán theremines o el canto de una sirena...sonidos ululantes que parecen salidos de un sueño y que más que sonar es como si te hablaran. 'the meadow at summernights' es tan bonita, y 'games at the creek', y el 'pastel de domingo por la mañana'. pero sobre todo los treinta minutos limbo de 'treehut vision': electrónica algodonosa de cambios sutiles y esa sensación de transparencia, de intimidad, de suspensión en el tiempo. una miniatura de estructura circular, un simple apunte melódico sin principio ni final. Günter Schlienz es un estilista que todo lo que toca lo impregna de un barniz delicado, pulido, que no resta ni un ápice de emoción. al contrario. sus mágicas habilidades a la hora de construir ritmos en suspensión, frecuencias, vibraciones y nebulosas de melodía, de la belleza en general y el minimalismo en particular, han evolucionado cinta tras cinta, probablemente a la misma velocidad que los sintes modulares hechos a mano y con mimo de su casa-taller. sólo puedo hacer mías y suyas estas palabras de more felationship acerca de un disco cualquiera: "escucharlo parece una tarea para arqueólogos: es como ir descubriendo sus finísimas capas, pincel en mano, con miedo a no romper nada." devoción y amor eterno. ¿y la guinda? que la magia continuará en 'contemplation', su inminente disco en preservation. ya sólo leyendo los títulos, que parecen descifrar su personalidad o al menos lo que a mí me transmite, sé que volverá a ser un regalo.

la otra guinda: nuevo disco de x.r.y. en constellation tatsu. muy muy feliz. pero hay una tercera guinda, y es 'autumnal hum' de Bird People. ahora mismo me parece casi imposible que este año se componga algo más bonito y bucle, en el sentido mantra del término, que 'blodeuwedd's night song' y 'the looming mountain is a wide-awake body'.

listen/buy ~ buy the cassette

günter schlienz / floating gardens

günter schlienz ~ organ studies (constellation tatsu, 2013)

"the night sky blossoms with beams distant, familiar-arcing between islanded hubs. fleeting bridges form and resonate hope with memories of hope. silence made nocturnal shuttering."

listen/buy ~ buy the tape

floating gardens ~ generalife (constellation tatsu, 2013)

"taken high beyond the normal scenery, outdoor programming cultivates life aboard the in-plane, flexural, and geometric gridpax that has become the new unsequenced way of living. motioning keyboard fingers show the way."

listen/buy ~ buy the tape

por fin coinciden tres de los universos más bonitos, Günter Schlienz, Floating Gardens y Constellation Tatsu. dos músicos distintos, dos formas de entender la música en el fondo muy parecidas y que si encima se edita en uno de nuestros sellos favoritos la emoción se triplica. gracias a este precioso revival electrónico es como si microphones viviese una segunda juventud, pero es que estos días he disfrutado de tanta música bonita junta que no sabía ni por dónde empezar. 'organ studies' y 'generalife' son la prueba definitiva de que la música electrónica puede llegar a ser tan cálida, musgosa y acogedora como cualquier disco folk de la pradera, una de las pocas cosas que me hacen conectar con la magia, la emoción inexplicable y el misterio de cuando era pequeña y veía en la televisión, sin entender nada, 'planeta imaginario'. supongo que todos añoramos en cierta manera el pasado, que si existiera una máquina del tiempo en la que poder viajar a aquella época en blanco y negro y poder tocar y oler esas máquinas gigantescas con miles de cables y botoncitos no dudaríamos en subirnos. algo especial tiene la candidez de aquellos años. ordenadores antiguos con las pantallas llenas de cálculos, imágenes de los primeros años de la carrera espacial y sencillos gráficos del sistema solar, de las órbitas de los planetas y de las trayectorias trazadas por las sondas espaciales. una nostalgia agridulce que tan bien representan los discos de Panabrite, Former Selves, Günter Schlienz o Floating Gardens, acercándose al sonido Library Music, una música irrepetible que cuando la escuchas ya no hay vuelta atrás y no quieres escuchar otra cosa: Mort Gartson, David Casper, Walt Rockman, Michel Redolfi o Armando Sciascia. un sinfín de perlas sumergidas en el fondo del mar que transmiten toda la ilusión de aquellos primeros descubrimientos, de cuando parecía que todo era posible.

'organ studies' es esta vez un viaje al sonido de un órgano y a lo que hay más allá, a los lados, detrás, encima, incluso dentro. y de nuevo la misma sensación de quietud, inercia e inmovilidad. un viaje dividido, como 'tape studies', en seis presentaciones que desprenden una calma absoluta. Günter Schlienz es nuestro duende favorito, siempre evolucionando, probando nuevos caminos que se cruzan y se bifurcan, caminos donde se mezclan muchas cosas y muchos cables y botoncitos  y las percepciones acaban siendo variables. influenciado por la escena kosmische germana y por el minimalismo de Steve Reich, Günter juega con lo breve, lo fragmentario, lo menudo y convierte la música electrónica en un precioso recital de sensaciones. pero es que su música siempre es así, vas entrando poco a poco en la burbuja y cuando te quieres dar cuenta ya no hay posibilidad de salir, hay una vibracion especial a su alrededor que te envuelve e invita a pasarte todo el día ahí dentro. esa vibración hipnótica, hermosa, que obliga a escuchar con lupa un disco de principio a fin y que te hace sentir que todavía existen infinitos senderos por explorar. y luego está su forma de tocar, como adormecido y a veces ya casi transparente. no sé si hace proezas instrumentales o grandes virtuosismos, pero su forma de crear música, flexible cual gatuno, jugando con cada nota y cada botoncito que aprieta, es algo que no se puede explicar, es como si no quisiera despertar las teclas, como si supiera que sin apretar un botoncito podrían existir igual. no inventa ni tampo recicla: procesa, abstrae e hipnotiza con artefactos fascinantes. te lo imaginas, tal como explica en esta entrevista con Honest Bag, sentado durante horas delante de sus sintetizadores, como un indio Winnetou cósmico (de ahí el nombre de su propio sello con el que le bautizó un amigo), agazapado cual ornitólogo esperando el vuelo más elegante del pájaro más esquivo. si no se percibe tensión en sus canciones, pura paz y sosiego, será porque no la ha habido. como si todo surgiese de la alegría de experimentar y aprender. y ahí está él, compatibilizando su hobby de ilusionista manitas reparador de viejos sintetizadores analógicos que ya nadie quiere, su trabajo como ingeniero de sonido en Stuttgart Opera y su oficio de redimensionador de la electrónica vintage. con ellos escucha los sonidos del mundo que nos rodea, los silencios. y los organiza, los orquesta y los acaricia para convertirlos en increíbles partituras que, ya sea con órganos o sintetizadores modulares, suenan siempre a él. mis favoritas, las presentaciones número uno y seis, que deberían titularse directamente levitation one, levitation two,...  son puro trance al estilo de Celestrial Starway de Inspired School of Astral Music. o cómo ser minimalista y repetitivo sin dejar nunca de emocionar. de regalo, la preciosísima 'talking to seagulls (with Barney and Trista)', adelanto de su próxima cinta en Metaphysical Circuits.

la historia vuelve a repetirse con 'generalife' de Floating Gardens. otra preciosidad que refleja incluso con muchísima más fuerza el encanto de la música de aquellos pioneros semidesconocidos de la música electrónica. por alguna razón lo asocio con 'mother earth's plantasia' de Mort Garson, es decir, uno de los discos más bonitos del mundo. tan vintage, cristalino, galáctico, es el disco que grabaría Michel Redolfi tras un retiro tibetano en compañía de nuestro eterno favorito Jürgen Müller. empieza a sonar 'life behind the airlock', un trocito de cosmos en apenas cuatro minutos, y adoro a Eric Hanss con devoción, su música es dulce y aeroespacial, balsámica y curativa. tengo la sensación de que, como todo lo relacionado con su sello Field Studies y Voice of the Garden, vive en un viaje narcótico en el tiempo, en un submarino psicodélico cuyo periscopio se convierte en un caleidoscopio donde flotan medusas y plantas marinas, pero también las notas de Buchikamashi, Edgar Froese y Michael Stearns. la música ideal para perderse una mañana soleada en un jardín botánico y perder la noción del tiempo y del espacio. como Piotr Kurek o Lieven Moana, es como si interpretase la realidad asumiendo que hay otras realidades. sonidos al aire libre, sintetizadores vintage fundidos con la naturaleza, audiobelleza y magia, nada más. 'core memory', 'vernal pool simulations' e 'interlude' capturan con absoluta perfección el espíritu de 'reve abyssal underwater series' de Gaston Borreani, pero es 'vernal pool simulations' la que compendia como ninguna la cálida tonalidad electrónica con las grabaciones de campo, tan hipnótica que genera sensaciones como las que se tiene al oir por primera vez el disco de Borreani o el de Mort Garson, música tan fascinantemente bonita, elegante y aislada en el tiempo que tienes que escucharla varias veces seguidas para ver si es real. y lo es. aún ayudándome de todas las referencias a discos maravillosos, adivinar de dónde llegan esos sonidos, sus acordes o motivaciones, sigue siendo para mí un enigma. 

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop :)