ARTICLES
Benoît Pioulard's Précis
Label: Dynamophone
Label: Hidden Shoal

ALBUMS
Aemae
A Lily
Arc Lab
Blotnik Brothers
Gui Boratto
Cagesan
Jeremy Caulfield
Loren Dent
Do Make Say Think
Eats Tapes
Enduser
Domink Eulberg
Explosions in the Sky
Michael Fahres
The Field
Frivolous
Maximilian Hecker
Hug
Hush Arbors
Jan-M. Iversen
Espen Jørgensen
Kattoo
O.Lamm
Bruce Levingston
Tobias Lilja
Lusine
Marcia Blaine School
The Missing Ensemble
Nebulo
Ölvis
Charlemagne Palestine
Palomar
Pornopop
The Postmarks
Propergol Y Colargol
The Retail Sectors
R/R Coseboom
Sankt Otten
Scratch Massive
Slow Dancing Society
Stars of the Lid
subtractiveLAD
Sunosis
Aoki Takamasa
Amon Tobin
Tokyo Mask
Kate Wax
Wes Willenbring
Windmill

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Chaos.Lovers
Cryosphere
Hub: 2004-2005
Rufs
Satoshi Tomiie

3" /7" /10"/12"/EPs
Agnes
AM/PM
Arctic Sunrise
Audion
Characterize 1
Dartriix
Death is Nothing To Fear
Don't Be A Stranger
Einóma
Fusiphorm
Heartthrob
Human Nature
Infant Cycle / Antmanuv
Lilienweiss
Luci
Mauve
Paco Osuna
Ben Parris
Carola Pisaturo
Portable
Sutekh
System
Aoki Takamasa
Cortney Tidwell
Andy Vaz

Sankt Otten: Wir koennen ja Freunde bleiben
Hidden Shoal

Throughout its twelve pieces, Wir koennen ja Freunde bleiben (Let's Remain Friends) exudes a ‘high plains drifter'-styled ambiance, with Oliver Klemm's twanging guitars stretching their tremolo sound across the panoramic desert of band leader Stephan Otten's simpatico drumming. In operation in various forms since 1999, Sankt Otten (bassist Volker Schumacher and keyboardist Fredy Engel in addition to Otten and Klemm) creates brooding, cinematic moodscapes from a core of guitars, bass, and drums augmented by atmospheric strings and keyboards; the group's soundtracks for imaginary films may drink from Labradford's evocative and desolate well but add considerably more heft along the way.

Sometimes violent (hear the Chinese cymbal crashes that punctuate the opener “Fremdenzimmer” and the slashing guitars that inflame the slithering trip-hop of “Happiness [Woanders als hier]” and “Seit Tagen kein Wunder”), sometimes peaceful, the album settles into a more relaxed vein in its closing third; during the string-drenched lullaby “Wir koennen ja Freunde bleiben,” Sankt Otten even calls to mind the Fripp-based material on Eno's Another Green World. Each song wends a different route—“Wenn die Musik verstummt” couples Mozart-styled classicism with a lumbering snarl while “Fadenscheinig” inhabits a noirish jazz ballad zone—so the interest level remains high throughout.

April 2007