new reviews at electronicmusicreviews.com

[r stanton <industrialrobot@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

New reviews this week at http://www.electronicmusicreviews.com include ones 
of Solvent's 'solvent city,' Vert's 'The Koln Konzert', V/A 'Early 
Modulations: Vintage Volts', and Cor Fuhler/Gert-Jan Prins 'The Flirts ' as 
well as Peter Benisch' Soundtrack Saga, which is below.

Peter Benisch
Soundtrack Saga
(Turbo Recordings)
    Winter in suburban Central America is quite an odd time for an 
introspective adolescent boy, and I?ll tell you why. The five cold months of 
the year that bring subzero temperatures, tender frost and snow, 
short-lasting days with brilliant sunshine, and long nights where if you 
breathe, you exhale smoke. Now the ordinary person probably overlooks these 
things as common, and ultimately fails to see the significance in them. To 
one trying to define the world as his eyes see it, such factors of the 
season are immediately noticeable, and each day becomes something filled 
with realizations to be made and observations to be catalogued. The beauty 
of the vibrant midday sun reflecting off a mound of snow is not lost to him, 
as it is to the businessman hurrying to work.
    So how does the experience of winter in teenage years have anything to 
do with the Swedish composer Peter Benisch and his work? Well, my 
inspiration for the introduction of this review stems from the choice of the 
motif in the album artwork-a man walking across a virginal plain of snow, 
and my own personal experiences performing the same activity when walking 
home from high school. Geographical climate aside, with Soundtrack Saga, 
Benisch effectively creates the score to that period of life-introspective, 
lush, and oftentimes moody. Each song is soaked in a unique, ?natural? 
beauty that contains intricate pieces of emotion and technical complexity 
which are discovered only upon repeat listens.
    Soundtrack Saga marks a new route for the Scandinavian-educated 
composer in that his classical training is brought to the forefront along 
with vibrantly complex orchestrations, both of which were downplayed for his 
more ambient/musique concrete Waiting for Snow, which was released two years 
ago on the legendary Fax label. Most of the building block formulas and 
minimalist orchestrations from that album are dispensed with, and Benisch is 
left free to produce modern micro-symphonies using everything from 
synthesized strings to a female vocal chorus in order to convey his emotions 
through song.
    It seems the winter, or more specifically snow, is a repeating 
influence on Benisch?s work. Perhaps the simple, yet beautiful patterns of 
the cascading white flakes along with the imagery of icicles and frozen 
tundra evokes the sense of peacefulness or nostalgia within him, ultimately 
resulting in musical output. More likely, though, the wintry scenes act as 
emotional inspiration to the young artist, causing him to compose songs with 
chilled textures, fragile atmospherics, and complex, oftentimes shifting, 
arias. Is Benisch trying to say something about the weather of his native 
country, or his personal feelings? Is the frozen life of nature the same 
that Benisch feels internally? Judging by the music he makes, not really. 
Soundtrack Saga is a richly emotive album which works either as individual 
songs or as something larger in scale. The structure and flow of the record 
evidence this properly.
    The opening synthesized violins and female sighs on ?Skymning? indicate 
what to expect from the album, namely songs rich in musical elements and 
feeling, expanded not through the use of beats, but instead through the 
various pieces or movements each song is broken into. ?Temple of Opposites? 
resounds with dark, imposing cello-like bits mixed with ethereal vocal 
samples, only to dissipate into a tender song comprised of chime refrains 
and staccato rhythms. While Benisch?s message here is obvious, his musical 
composition of it works extraordinarily well in capturing the overall feel 
of the album as well. Soft bongos propel ?Love Song? into existence, and 
along with My Bloody Valentine style vocal hums, piano, and a gentle melody, 
there?s a certain sense of melancholy or nostalgia about the track. It 
should be obvious at this point that Soundtrack Saga has more than one 
motive behind it. Aside from the emotional aspects of the album, there?s a 
certain filmic quality to the work, where scenery, emotion, and plot are 
easily envisioned. ?Spiralling? concludes the album with slow church organ 
drone, repeating atmospheric loops, and some sort of crystallized, digital 
chanting for a rather cold, fittingly, conclusion.
    Though the beat loops on Soundtrack Saga are rather simple, Benisch 
seems more concerned with the pace of his rhythms, as well as the structures 
built around them, which ultimately leads to a stronger cohesion and feel 
for each song. While still beat oriented, the album never falls into the 
trap of becoming engrossed with its own thuds and plinks, instead. Thus, 
while easily comparable to Bola?s new-age meets dance music masterpiece, 
Soup, Benisch?s work is more subtle and harmonic than its ?predecessor,? 
relying on strong, classically built melodies than on rhythm mechanics or 
manufactured noises to move the songs forward. However, both are able to 
combine thick, complex musical compositions with programmed beats for a 
unique effect or purpose. While Bola?s work tended to evoke strange feelings 
of mechanical or alien warmth with its digital beats and deep melodies, 
Benisch instead works with ?cold? sounds to achieve a similar result. With 
his vision, Peter Benisch has created, for me at least, the ideal soundtrack 
to the winter months. So, when I go home from university over the winter, 
after the first snow has fallen and I?ve shoveled it, I?ll notice its simple 
beauty and sadness in its short lifespan, then head inside to listen to 
Soundtrack Saga.

Robert Stanton


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