| Artist: Cosmic Hoffmann Album: Electric Trick Released: 2005 |   |
|
Cosmic Hoffmann thinks with his hands. We can hear this on Electric Trick (69'19), an album of nine spacey works that each journey out of a distinctly unique region of the artist's mind. Using his guitar and effects Hoffmann cranks out prog-rock inspired melodies as equally well as he plays in the more dulcet and tranquil range of his instrument. On several tracks Hoffmann invites fellow German spacemusic-wizard Stephen Parsick to contribute electronics and sequencer tone patterns. Generating a different fascinating pulse for each piece, Parsick's infinitely repeating runs of electronic blips and beats provide a pumping machine-like foundation in one place, loping beatbox rhythms in another and synchronized multi-layered arpeggios elsewhere. Co-existing with all this is Hoffmann's guitar. Leads snaking over and under the pattern or playing within it, his guitar's output wails in free psychedelia as perfectly as it does in measured precision playing. Hoffmann also brings to Electric Trick his ample talents as a Mellotronist, coaxing an amazing range of sounds and moods from this classic instrument. Somehow his performance always sounds like it is coming from the heavens. Above the clouds an ethereal choir sings on high, a beautiful flute tone plays somberly through deep reverberation and dreamy strings conjure up a most heartfelt elegiac atmosphere. Although Cosmic Hoffmann may have the cosmos flowing through his mind, his heart is always expressing itself in his music.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 24 February 2009 | |
| Reviews |