Tracklisting:
01/A1 Mohn – Manifesto
02/A2 Superpitcher – Jackson
03/A3 Morek – Pan
04/A4 Magazine – The Visitor’s Bureau (Magazine Edit)
05/B2 Triola – Richmodis
06/B1 Wolfgang Voigt – Rückverzauberung 5
07/B3 bvdub – Your Loyalty Lies Long Forgotten
08/A5 Marsen Jules – Swans Reflecting Elephants
09/B4 Simon Scott – For Martha
10/B5 Loops Of Your Heart – Riding The Bikes
POP AMBIENT 2012 begins in an unusually new but nevertheless somehow familiar fashion. MOHN with MANIFESTO is the opening act. A manifest of slowness. A slowness that Jörg Burger and Wolfgang Voigt have taken up as new mission. MOHN is their new ambient-grunge-downbeat project, scheduled to depart on its official musical journey to Middle Earth early 2012. What follows is equally surprising: the old KOMPAKT swashbuckler SUPERPITCHER is taking part for the very first time. His piece JACKSON is borne by a slightly uncanny, spherical voice floating above a jazzy pop accord coolness and faintly 70ies sequencer aesthetics.
It is followed by a familiar face from past times who is making an anonymous return on KOMPAKT under his new pseudonym MOREK. PAN is a textbook example of a classical piece of pop ambient music. Timeless elegance. MAGAZINE, the “krauty“ electronic guerrilla from Cologne-Deutz, has tailored the piece THE VISITORS BUREAU we all know from Magazine 4 into a measure-made ambient frock. Then comes Jörg “TRIOLA“ Burger with a solo appearance. His multifaceted, intricately woven Arabian Nights-style sounds, with effectively placed harmonic shifts reminiscent of Pink Floyd in the best of their phases, indicate why the piece RICHMODIS was named after an old Cologne saga.
Enter the Pope of Ambient: WOLFGANG VOIGT masterfully continues his impressive creative ambient frenzy in RÜCKVERZAUBERUNG 5, not by stagnating on the usual planes but by further developing his new concept into a novel direction of abstract jazz. BVDUB is taking part for the third time – for a good reason. The Dutchman, who lives in China, leaves nothing to be desired with his sensitive musical signature, over and over again. Likewise, MARSEN JULES constantly refines his bizarre, flickering sound constructions and even adds percussion drums that are atypical for ambient. SIMON SCOTT is a newcomer to POP AMBIENT but certainly no unknown face. The Englishman already impressed the scene a while ago on the Miasmah label.
His contribution “ For Martha“ is a particularly good piece of classical pop ambient music that fits into this year’s compilation like an homage. A relaxing final appearance is provided by a good friend of the house: Axel“The Field“Willner alias LOOPS OF YOUR HEART charms us with a light-footed, pleasantly filled guitar loop tempting us to press the Start button at the end of the CD/record.
The flex waistband wants a load of shoppers.