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For some people, when they ponder the "deconstruction" of a Spacemusic album, they go looking for a screwdriver and a pair of wire cutters. When considering the work of Dirk Jan Müller, and his Cosmic Ground project, please put away your tools. It will take only an effort of the imagination, as well as that of the intellect, to comprehend and enjoy this music. A follow-up to his self-titled debut, Cosmic Ground 2 (77'57") again forgoes the white heat of technology for realizations of mechanical, electrical and analog origin. Utilizing several vintage sacramental synthesizers, in a secret ministry of sound, he performs a most welcome digital detox on his listeners. Across its four tracks Cosmic Ground 2 haunts us with wild pleasures. From its plutonium dense gray desolation and battles with extreme silence, to twinkling modulations and multiple rows of rolling sequencer patterns, we move - west with the night. Arranged under an atmosphere of netherworld sonics, Cosmic Ground 2 throbs powerfully and bounds outward along an electrified musical current. Some sections express themselves without rhythm. In an ever-shifting collage of tones and notes these zones offer classic textures of sustaining rumbling drones - which support a dramatic movement of chords in the upper register. Locked in an impressive cloud of knowing, Dirk Jan Müller's imagination seems inexhaustible. He is more than merely piloting his gear, and his music is greater than the audio engineering ideas credited to Robert Moog through Donald Buchla. If among its many qualities, this release sounds nostalgic to you, that is a good thing. The present only lasts but 80 milliseconds, so we do live in the past... where most of our lives are.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 20 August 2015 |
