An Moku & Stefan Schmidt - Raum im Raum [Karlrecords - 2023]Raum im Raum is the final chapter in a trilogy that sees An Moku (Zurich-based Dominik Grenzler) team up with Stefan Schmidt to produce something dark and wicked. The shadowy side of the ambient spectrum, which can serve as a catchall, but here proves to be the only reliable point of entry for what transpires over eleven tracks, each of which feels like a preparatory study and coda in one. The jangle of strings is a reminder of Schmidt’s field of expertise, while An Moku fills the landscape with muffled field recordings and lo-fi synths, creating textures that are at once infinitesimally granular (read: small) and monumental (read: big). It is a bit of a challenge to discern exactly what comes from whom, or if it is true that one of the two is in charge of one side of this double infinity of sonic scale or they are both doing the parts together, but whatever the division of labor, the duality is ever-present. Raum im Raum even features a rather lilting, dance-worthy interludes “RIR ° 5” and “RIR ° 9” (the formula for each of the titles) between its otherwise meandering compositions, a bit of hammering rhythm to populate the miasma. This is mirrored by the album”s final piece, in which the human voice – modulated, garbled, distorted – rears its head, if only for a few terminal seconds. The staccato is a welcome reprieve from the album’s longest and most searching cut “RIR ° 8”, which offers audible proof that we have left the familiar behind.
For fans of exquisitely crafted dark, moody ambience, comprised of organic lifeforms, both alien and all-too-familiar....to find out more   Colin Lang
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