Schöner Flußengel is another LP-only release by Keith Fullerton Whitman (who mangles beats with great aplomb under the name Hrvatski) and is a darker affair than his previous ambient-drone LP release on Kranky. Where Antithesis was a history lesson that showed the formulation and progression of Whitman’s compositional skills, Schöner Flußengel is a record that speaks very clearly to the here and now. As an outgrowth of his lecturing gig at Harvard University, Whitman has become fascinated with the possibilities of solo experimentation and, utilizing the sound labs at the University, he has multi-tracked voice, drums, synthesizer, audio equipment, bell and guitar into a digitized world of atmospheric drones and drifting
audio collages.
Easily heard as two long pieces (and the only reason it necessarily falls into two pieces is the annoying break when you have to flip the record over, further shattered by the abrupt end of the metallic
clatter of “Gravicembalo col Piano e Forte”), Schöner Flußengel is a time-lapse evolution of sound—a drifting, shifting field of tiny melodies, the abrasive cry of oxidizing metal, the elongated chimes of stretched bell tones, the shrieking banshee wail of distorted guitar and the (relatively) quiet hum of old static. The acoustic guitar of “Lixus (version numerique)” plays in an empty field of dead corn while the sky burns with falling satellites, their long shriek of angelic descent harsh counterpoint to the introspective melody. After the meteor show ends, “Weiter” begins with a belching squelch of noise that emerges from the ground and adds its voice to the guitar melody. From the destruction of the previous track climbs a rising chorus of intertwined instrumentation—synthetic voices, treated guitar, pianoforte, glittering synthesizer—in a piece that reverses the cataclysmic fall of the previous track.
“Lixus (version analogique)” opens Schöner Flußengel and the analog drum kit and guitar duet (while dappled with hints of the noise which will consume the “numerique” version of the song) is a grounding point, a comfortable free jazz-esque improvisation that introduces us to the experimentation that Whitman is considering. “Lixus (version analogique”) dissolves into the elongated throat drones and digitally treated bell tones of “Bewusstseinserweiternd Tonaufnahme (Einer & Zweiter Teile)”, a ten-minute sonic space that compresses itself into a dense cloud of pure sound.
As a solo composition, Schöner Flußengel is an amazing collection of ambient and post-rock / post-drone pieces, a deeply textured exploration into the resonance of sound. Label this one “experimental dark ambient” as it is simultaneously a bottomless sinkhole of stygian echoes and a luminous vortex of burning motes. Schöner Flußengel is the sound of the collision between light and dark.
Schöner Flußengel is available on Kranky.
