The good people at not applicable have managed to capture the lightning in a bottle that is the collaborative trio of Lothar Ohlmeier on bass clarinet, Isambard Khroustaliov on electronics and Rudi Fischerleiner on percussion for another round of playful, pastoral and industrial bricolage.
Their third album together and the first in two and a half years, Landscapes finds them meeting up like three comets on awkward trajectories miraculously convening to push their chosen envelope further. Over eight tracks, the album attempts to highlight the sorts of places that have been overrun and are derelict through lack of use; so the balloon stretching and edgy shuffling percussion describes landscapes seen through dusty windows and windswept abandoned courtyards as if they are busking aimlessly for no-one but themselves, allowing the sounds around them to feed into the overall rumble.
The percussion is tricky and tickly with arcane swoops and swings appearing from around overlooked corners, while the clarinet is sultry and mellow, the melange of the three lapping at your mind’s eye. Elsewhere it is hollow and rubbery, sounding as if constructed from found materials lying around in the vicinity, and setting up a scuttling momentum with the clarinet popping its head up from the undergrowth that is encroaching in the corners. All the while eerie sounds emanate from everywhere and attempt to warmly guide the listener into more unheralded directions.
Generally, Landscapes is a low key affair, insinuating rather than over bearing, and it allows the listener to melt in with the soundscapes. Even though some of the sounds are outlandish, they are sparse and swathed in echo which adds to the feeling of abandonment and glorious decay; until at one point birds are startled from their ruminations and scatter from the ruins, screaming into the gloaming.
The way the electronics and percussion knit together produces a rush of sound, an amorphous bed upon which the clarinet floats, benignly or anxiously depending on the conditions and can appear more scattered and aggressive as the album continues, showing a sense of frustration. Towards the end it joins with the slow twist of some unknown machinery that finds the cogs and gears squealing with disuse and adding to the mounting tension, the uneven floor mutating and echoing all the while creeping ever forward.
The atmosphere that the trio has generated over the album is impressive and engaging, with mystery sounds appearing and disappearing before your ears. It is a joy to have the three back together, once again achieving expectations and drawing us along with them.
-Mr Olivetti-
