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Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Andreas von Garnier and Leander Reininghaus are the Spacemusic ceremony celebrants TaboTago. These three minds are a fascinating interconnected machinery. Steeped in the brew of the Berlin-School their album Kymatica (52'12") conjures well that particular era's vague air of cosmic mystery. Throwing off currents of nervous, wiry energy this music portrays a specific moment of human interaction. The three musicians concentrate intently on the task before them. As their jam sessions deepen, they becoming oblivious to the rest of the world, which enlarges the sense of real contact and cooperation. Kymatica's six skillfully navigated tracks should make it obvious that there are real people involved in the realization of this music, and not a one of these pieces is the result of casual interactions with algorithms or automated applications. As sequencer patterns bolt from the starting line, seemingly with a pack of demons at their backs, Mellotron flutes, strings and choirs sweeten the air with their dulcet strains and affecting harmonies. Further in a discourse for electric guitar and synths has an air of self-interrogation - achieving an uncanny directness. It is an anthem for anyone who has raged alone at the night, sending questions into the darkness. But hearts should always mend by morning, and Kymatica quickly moves beyond the sunrise and back into starlit terrain. Minor-key chords are split apart into mechanistic and echoing arpeggio notes, winding out, then sustaining like an engine in its power zone. Lead lines bring focus to the story of the song, while modulated effects scatter in the wake of locomotion. TaboTago is an innocent wild thing, at the mercy of a ruthlessly predatory species - which is to say we the listeners. Kymatica is much more than the result of transforming an electrical current into sound. This work warns us that the future is out there - unstoppable, and on its way... asking what will it bring? and will we be ready?
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 2 Auguat 2018 |
