- Slow-burning modular trips.
- Mareena and JakoJako seem to have found musical soulmates in each other, first collaborating on a track for Mareena's label Unrush last year, and now revealing a full LP as well as plans for a follow-up on Tresor Records. On Atlas Der Gedanken, the two artists keep an open mind about what constitutes ambient, the genre that Japanese label Muzan Editions specialises in.
For a style of music making so heavily focused on machines, the duo's sound is strikingly organic. The eternal arpeggios of "Neue Impulse" conjure a proverbial city of flashing lights and cables—a favourite Instagram post for modular musicians—but what you hear is a lush undergrowth of life, topped with raindrop melodies and a soundscape canopy. On the more old-school opener, "Phantasma," an organ-like synth line is adorned with touches of modular noodling, like a version of the wah-wah pitch bend or an effect that sounds like a fly trying to buzz its way through a window.
The album's centrepiece, "Mut Zur Wahrheit," plunges heavy, whispered truths into murky depths. It's worlds away from the spirited, ping-pong percussion of "Sinnessprung" and the bright, optimistic sounds which follow, but shows the impressive range of a duo with just one solo record between them.
Tracklist01. Phantasma
02. Sinnessprung
03. Mut Zur Wahrheit
04. Tagtraum
05. Neue Impulse
06. Wandel