Seeking the heart of urban dark, Müller’s soft arrangement of a hard-edged genre with its roots in Detroit techno make an album nearly the length of a feature film into a seamless, bass-rich Bernard Herrmann Hollywood score.
Behind is the debut solo album by Martin Müller, the front end of Berlin production duo youANDme, who arranged a showcase mix of the impeccable Ornaments label’s productions back in 2009. Müller steps out into a night of discreetly funky dub techno, artfully constructed out of vintage analogue machinery, field recordings and live instrumentation—absolutely no sampling—accompanied by guests Olga Kholodnaia of the Deutches Symphonie Orchester, Martin Kohlstedt of Marbert Rocel and The Analog Roland Orchestra’s Michal Matlak.
To steady, richly varied percussion, Behind slinks cat-like down the avenue, under buzzing neon and round lampposts holding up handbills, goes down a dark ambient alley, saunters into a club to check the talent. It’s a satiny smooth, downtempo asphalt stroll in blue shadow and close, humid air, most exalting on the propulsive, parping “Beyond,” which ebbs elegantly with the light breeze of Kholodnaia’s violin, and “Diamond,” on which she papers Múller’s house with sinuous arabesques, like the Ornaments logo. Stopping at street corners and doorways along the way, Müller picks up words of poetic wisdom from an exotic blend of colleagues—Brothers’ Vibe, Bajka, Keter Darker, Delhia de France and Robert Owens.
Seeking the heart of urban dark, Müller’s soft arrangement of a hard-edged genre with its roots in Detroit techno make an album nearly the length of a feature film into a seamless, bass-rich Bernard Herrmann Hollywood score.
Behind is available on Ornaments. [Release page]
