5 hours ago
3
After the fall of the Wall, it fell into disrepair and remained neglected until Nils Frahm oversaw a restoration of Studio 3 where he has subsequently recorded his own music during the last ten years or so.
The renovation has also brought back the distinctive acoustic of the original studio, and this is certainly a contributory factor in the success of this fine album by the multi-instrumentalist Ralph Markus Sieber (aka Aukai).
The main instruments here are classical guitar and charango (ten-stringed, lute-like, Andean), but these are delightfully supplemented and complemented by, among other things, piano and the in-situ reed organ.
What makes this album succeed so pleasingly, where so many other “ambient” records fail dismally, is the simple but clear sense of structure in the tracks, avoiding the drift so common in this genre. “Waterlight”, for instance, creates basic yet convincing patterns that repeat with interpolated nuances in the constructing of a persuasive musical unit.
Another factor very much in this album’s favour is its unfussy mix. It was recorded and mixed quickly, and it conveys a sense of natural spontaneity, without the artificiality that so often hangs over some records where simpler would have been so much better.
Here, instruments move in and around the soundstage without any sense of force on tracks such as “Raíces al Viento” and “Las Lluvias”. The intelligent balance between the vigour of the studio’s reed organ and the delicacy of the plucked strings is splendidly achieved across a range of compositions.
What this album demonstrates so effectively is that ambient should not be a synonym for aimless or unfocused. There is subtlety, detail and variety in abundance across the twelve tracks on Chambers. The range might not be especially wide, but what is actually done is done exceptionally well.
English (US) · 