The sixth LP and the first for six years by the German experimental electronic artist Sascha Ring (Grammy nominated for 2019’s LP5), on the theme of flux and uncertainty, balancing family and work life, and built on the back of stressful three years of writer’s block but filled with unusual sonic textures, sonic and acoustic and vulnerable emotions. It is particularly inspired by love, for his wife, and his daughter, and self-care, holding onto it, protecting it, and constantly recalibrating. Apparat’s music is entirely unpredictable, mixing electronics with convention instruments, looping and putting seemingly incompatible elements together like a jigsaw puzzle. He is particularly indebted here to the input of friend and collaborator Philipp Johann Thimm (cello, piano, guitar) - who also co-wrote and co-produced the record, joined by Christoph “Mäckie” Hamann (violin, keyboard, bass), Jörg Wähner (drums), and Christian Kohlhaas (trombone). The album also features Armenian-American artist KÁRYYN - Apparat’s Mute labelmate - on the idiosyncratic, delicate Tilth, with high, beautiful high vocals and jittery electronica, and Berlin-and Rome-based musician Jan- Philipp Lorenz (aka Bi Disc) on Pieces, Falling. Other highlights include opener Glimmerine, which builds from gentle piano and understated vocals into greater intensity, particularly via drums and brass. Another is the title track, with delicious sweeping strings and waves of electronica and pitter-patter train-rhythm percussion, the esoteric repeating waves of electronica and emotive vocal delivery on An Echo Skips a Name; later Lunes, inspired by his daughter with its multiple sections, as if four songs in one, and closer Recalibration, about hope for the future in his family relationship. Ghostly, innovative, cinematic, variously ebbing and flowing, beautifully polyrhythmic, and filled with surprises and delicious combinations of sound. Out on Mute Records.
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