First a warning. Don’t judge this album by its kitsch cover. When I received the CD, I thought that… errr…. I made a mistake. Fortunately, the music inside soon dissipated any doubts I might have had.

Timo Reuber should be a name that fans of the German new music scene are at least aware of. Together with Markus Detmer, he forms the Klangwart duo, with whom he recorded two full-lengths. Kintopp (Cinema) is his third solo album (all through Staubgold).

As the title implies, the music is meant to narrate a movie: “instead of words, it creates images in the mind of the listener”. Technically, Reuber uses collages of sounds from various and varied origins. While there is a definite eventful, almost epic feel to the album, I can not say that I saw things, images moving or not. It actually does not harm the quality of the album. First, because the syncretism method works wonder, Reuber being able to create a coherent whole from very different material, and then because there is a real dynamic to the album: it gets stronger and stronger, each track more captivating than the previous one.

Things start lightly, with a sort of playful Kammerflimmer Kollektief track and then a more techno-ish tune. Things get a little more original and interesting with the mix of  Matthias Gülicher’s guitar and Indian sounds, slowly morphing in some sort of “throat” mantra. Awesome stuff. Tangwald starts more like classic movie music, with mournful strings and all. The following tracks are rather laidback, with subtle electronic arrangements, strings, harpsichord and so on. But the most awesome stuff begins with Tanz mit mir. At first, it’s just a sort of percussions ensemble and electronic, it gets more and more coherent, trippy, trance inducing. All of sudden, you think you’re listening to a Boredoms track circa Vison, Creation, Newsun. And since at the end of this marathon (spanning on three tracks), Reuber provides a soothing end piece with Schlusskuss.

Great album by Reuber, already one of the nicest and most intriguing CD of 2005.