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Through our pandemic era Martin Stürtzer has transformed his home studio into a sanctuary. His Dyson Sphere Alpha (156'10") collects six tracks worth of live streamed sets from an ambitious schedule of Sunday evening performances. Across this outsized collection the atmosphere is wordless, but not thoughtless. As meaning crystalizes in the trembling air, the clean strike of high notes makes for an easier upward reach of the mind - toward a deeper interpretation of the spirit. All these recordings of live realizations begin in a contemplative nature. A few stay in this zone throughout their duration, but from most emerge lines of ordered notes, exerting a serene, secure authority. Haunting and time bending the warmth of rapt noble toned synthesizer patches ascends like incense. As the energy level of each set rises, so does the appeal of Stürtzer's selections. Clinging tightly to Berlin-School sources a melodic backbone may be located in the prevalent sequencer engine. Coming fully to life these insistent patterns provide an aural energy in the language of electricity. The structure is more spiral than linear. Circling around core chords in ever tightening loops, Stürtzer disappears into the performance. But perhaps more interesting are the dark tones at the edge of these works. The shifting shapes and expressive shades of sound portend the vast scale of an unknown expanse ahead. The prevailing mood, which is enigmatic, is yet reassuring. Here we may watch the darkness until the darkness leaves us, or we leave it. Some enjoy this kind of music as a means of wandering the cosmos in a daze, to keep the realization of existence at arm's length - while the more adventurous among us use it to better understand their deeper self. In his meditations on enchantment Martin Stürtzer inspirits us. As sure as twilight will follow these fading sonic shadows, the electric night concedes the healing of fractured minds, and the knowing of wounded souls. So plug in the synths, dim the lights, and breathe deep... for when it is time for a concert, it is time to dream of a better world.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 28 October 2021 |
