Delayed gratification; or, maybe no real gratification whatsoever? Strange and untimely qualities today, but with a rare acumen for presence, Periode (Andreas Reihse & Thomas Winkler), are just fine with the here and now on their new work of measured gesture and restraint, Grapes of Nothingness. Don’t let the title fool you. 

Nothingness is not an appeal to vacuity or nihilism; rather, the grapes just happen to be what they are: grapes. In other words, no wrath or chalked-up pathos. Winkler and Reihse are more than capable of filling musical space with dramatic tension, but something else is afoot here. Something akin to a “music of the transitional”, where discrete moments of heightened sonic attention converge without ever becoming something else: transition and not transformation, hence the “nothingness”.

Reihse handles the beats and low end, while Winkler picks through a series of tremolo and delay effects on the guitar, neither really competing with one another. Case in point is the titular track, in which Winkler’s guitar syncopates through a simple refrain with variable amplitude, while Reihse’s kick drum emphasizes the sequences’ breaks and playful march. There’s a fair bit of Berlin here, both in song names and the cool minimalism, a legacy that seems to persist amidst all the cultural upheavals around it. “Flipping the Buns” is a kind of nocturnal drive through empty streets at 3am. Indeed, much of Grapes of Nothingness engenders a feeling of those interstitial moments, after something has happened, or before it’s about to. There is plenty of space to dwell in, too, as on “Holz”, a sparsely composed pad of saturated guitar washes and perfectly timed beats. Part of getting lost in the transition is making sure it’s somewhere you’re not yet ready to vacate. The nine tracks here are precise without ever being cold or surgical, which in the post-something genre, is pretty rare.

Fans of Reihse’s main outfit, Kreidler, will no doubt recognise and enjoy the stripped-down beat making here. Others who are less familiar will still find a crafty and thoroughly enjoyable détournement of traditional song structure and technique. Very highly recommended!. To find out more