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Spotlight 1
Albums
Aquarelle
Barem
Biosphere
Chubby Wolf
Collard-Neven
Cuni & Durand
FareWell Poetry
Field Rotation
Fonogram
Keith Freund
Freiband
Buckminster Fuzeboard
Harley Gaber
Richard Ginns
Grauraum
Hilton/Phillips
Jenny Hval
Jasper TX
Kenneth Kirschner
The Last Hurrah!!
Letna
The Lickets
Melorman
Penalune
Mat Playford
Radiosonde
Salt Lake Electric Ens.
Will Samson
Janek Schaefer
Phillip Schroeder
Silkie
Sølyst
Swimming
Nicholas Szczepanik
Talvihorros
Kanazu Tomoyuki
Luigi Turra
Watson & Davidson
y0t0
You
Compilations / Mixes
Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep
Lee Curtiss
Deep Medi Volume 3
Goldie
Goldmann & Johannsen
Heidi
Mindfield
Priestley & Smith
SM4 Compilation
EPs
Agoria
Bop Singlayer
Botany
Duprass
Margaret Dygas
Fennesz
Golden Gardens
I Am A Vowel
Mobthrow
Dana Ruh
Fennesz: Seven Stars
Touch
Recorded and mixed in Vienna in January 2011 over a three-week period, Seven Stars presents eighteen minutes of new music from Christian Fennesz, his first solo release, in fact, since 2008's Black Sea (currently available as a digital download and ten-inch vinyl release, Seven Stars will also appear in a CD format in September). On the tracks, he plays acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, and computers, and is joined by drummer Steven Hess on one of the four pieces.
The graceful opener “Liminal” oozes a languourous, drifting feel in its slow-mo layering of guitar shadings, with rough-edged shards and intrusive stabs disrupting the otherwise peaceful ambiance. “July” starts out as a considerably more severe and industrial-toned exercise in moodsculpting, with Fennesz liberally altering his guitar sounds via computer treatments. Gradually low-leven churn and brittle textures give way to a gentler see-saw of chords, before the piece expires in a puff of smoke. On the flip side, “Shift” emerges in a cloud of organ dust that swells into an ever-spreading drone, his signature guitar playing either absent or camouflaged via computer manipulations. Similar in style and tone to “Liminal,” the closing title track adds a new wrinkle to Fennesz's music by including Hess's drum playing, which provides unobtrusive support for the guitarist's melancholy strums and ruminations.
Eighteen minutes isn't a whole lot of music, but the guitarist's unmistakable artistry is clearly evident throughout. Fennesz devotees won't have to wait terribly long for more new material either, as his third collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Flumina, is scheduled to appear this summer too. While Seven Stars is not the full-length solo recording I'd most like to have seen Fennesz release, it'll certainly do for now.
September 2011