TRAUMKLANG: Natural Phenomenons (2006)

“Natural Phenomenon is a crossing between floating, psychedelic and sequenced music with many nuances in a very sclerosed cosmic world”

1 Wetterleuchten 18:28
2 Nebelschwaden 24:22
3 Sternenfunkeln 23:50
SynGate |CD-R TK21 (CD-R 66:40) ***½
(Analog ambiospherical EM)

As far as I am concern, Traumklang is a riddle in the wonderful world of EM. Sometimes a trio, with Frank Klare and Peter Farn, sometimes a duet and finally a solo entity, this initial EM project conceived by Dominik Ebert and Carola Kern navigates on the electronic oceans since the beginning of the 90's without making nevertheless too many waves. And when we speak about Traumklang in the social standing, the expressions are illuminated with admiration while too little speak about the music and the works (I counted more than 20) of this musical project as much discreet as a pope's cold. It is thus with a lot of interrogation that I kissed the musical decoration of “Natural Phenomenon” which is a nice immersion in the universe of vintages tones.
We navigate in the intersidereal spheres of the cosmic music with the opening of "Wetterleuchten" which sounds a bit like that of Software in Electronic Universe II with all these strata a bit philharmonic which waltz and roam in a cosmos jostled by enormous spatial waves and flooded with analog sound effects. Our ears are the witnesses of a fusion between two universes at the diapason of their possibilities with this silky intro which awakes the nostalgic passions with waves of Mellotron which come down from an absolute blackness to surround of a cosmic sweetness the percussions which peck the heavy atonal ambiences of a more concrete rhythm. A sustained rhythm which spins slowly such as a psychedelicosmic waltz and where the memories of old electronic and cosmic rock of Adelbert Von Deyen fill our ears with a Mellotron which multiplies its layers to tones of dark organ. This outline of rhythm fails in an intensely atmospheric phase at around the 9th minute. This is a short ambiospheric moment which starts to buzz intensely, a little as on Pink Floyd's On the Run without the cymbals, with a heavy oscillator line which gurgles and deeply swirls in a circular and static chassé-croisé where the rhythm turns constantly in a broth of electronic tones, there where are hiding these old tones of organ. It is a black, heavy and lively rotary movement which is inspired by the corrosive atmospheres of Klaus Schulze. "Nebelschwaden" presents a long ambiospherical intro with reverberations, sometimes twisted and sometimes threatening, as well as resonant synth pads which wind and float among some ringings and the scattered knocks of percussions. These percussions mark the time, as a metronome and its echo, in a long phase devoid of harmonies but rich in electronic sound effects of which the effect of stereophony is quarreling for our attention. One can hear some lost mooing mutter on a structure which sounds more and more like some Adelbert Von Deyen, whereas that the percussions reconcile their strikings, hammering a rhythm of false rock which skips in the vapors of a Mellotron sticks with a bad cold. A bass line and its hopping chords adopt the shape of this minimalist rhythm which charms the ear with these waves a bit eroded coming from a keyboard and of its soft perfumes of lunar organ, while that riffs of a blind guitar finalises the basis of what we can call a smooth psychedelicosmic rock. Remember Iron Butterfly? Well, let say that it might be this US psyrock band playing EM. Under its ringings to the asymmetric strikings and its cosmic sound effects, "Sternenfunkeln" remains suspended in the purest lifelessness. Cemented in its cosmic ambience filled by floating impulses, the track evolves slowly beneath the thick sounds arms of a Mellotron synth of which the soft orchestral wanderings form a strange symbiosis with these keys in the colors of glockenspiel which sparkle in a sterile felted crescendo. It is a track of ambience, without percussions nor agitated sequences, which glides in a static universe which seems infinite. Hum … I have to admit that I stayed on my appetite with Traumklang's “Natural Phenomenon”. With comments gleaned here and there on the Net and among my friends, I expected something more hard-hitting. I am quits for a small pleasure with this mixture of both Teutonic universes which moves to the limits of their styles, without ever really nesting there in a definitive way. It is a crossing between floating, psychedelic and sequenced music with many nuances in a very sclerosed cosmic world. For those who love ambient in its many shapes.
Sylvain Lupari (September 20^th, 2006 and translated on March 26^th, 2013)
Cet article est disponible en Français sur le site de Guts of Darkness, dont je suis chroniqueur sous le nom de Phaedream: http://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/objet.php?objet=8798