Beast – Ens

Thrill Jockey

Koen Holtkamp has been pretty busy over the last ten or twelve years, primarily with his label Apestaartje, but also releasing music under his own name, solos and collaboratively, as well as all the albums that the lovely Thrill Jockey-signed Mountains released. For the last year or so, he has been releasing music under the name Beast and after a pair of records through Pre-Echo, Thrill Jockey are releasing the latest LP, and Koen’s first since becoming a father.

The kind of lulling guitar-based ambience of Mountains which revelled in a kind of repetitive simplicity has partly given way to a fuller sound here on Ens, with opening track “Paprika Shorts” starting out with a series of busy, staccato synth dots over which are layered some background smears of a lower sound, glittery spatters, hand claps, a heavy bass and some subtle cymbals. It was kind of fascinating listening as each ingredient was added, hearing the palette fill with these different shades. It is an antithesis of sorts to Mountains, and it is interesting to read that it was recorded and mixed late at night. It almost feels as though the addition of all the splashes of colour here were necessary to keep Koen’s attention on the job at hand. Anything too lulling would have seen him asleep across the mixing desk.

It doesn’t all clamour for attention though. The nine minute orient-tinged waterfall piano piece “Color Feel” nods in the direction of the crop of modern piano composers like Nils Frahm, its circling melody and strategically placed bass notes keeping us engaged as the faintest of fireworks are let off in the background. As it drops away towards its conclusion and some of the elements run out, we realise that some of the most beautiful and lightest of whirling piano notes have been hidden, barely detectable in the overall sound, yet a necessary part of the whole. Apparently, the last couple of Beast albums were mostly conceived to be performed in a visual environment with 3D effects, and although this album is very much a studio-based affair, there is a definite feel that he is playing with a sonic palette, trying to work out what sits best with what and which sounds complement the other.

Elsewhere, there is more of the Eastern feel to some tracks, “Edb” sounding as though a xylophone is playing against a gently droning backdrop, with an electric fence keeping some semblance of beat while the brushed strings of something like a zither enliven the short but sweet “Miniature”. Nothing outstays its welcome here, with panpipes highlighting the scudding Highland clouds of “Staren” and the sleepiest of cello drones on “Fop Otto” seeing the album out in a wisp of droning mist, the energy being taken down to a point of supreme relaxation.

Beast is very different to Mountains and certainly to some of the collaborative stuff (particularly that with Chris Forsyth), but it sees him moving forward, and perhaps this is this is the direction in which these new found methods will take him. It is great to see somebody who has been recording for so long still searching for something fresh.

-Mr Olivetti-