This is a cut above the usual remix project, but nothing less should be expected from Manfred Eicher’s Munich-based Edition Of Contemporary Music imprint. Since launching with jazz releases in 1969, it’s sat at the forefront of cutting-edge improv or experimental music, boasting a 1,000-plus albums catalogue.
Berlin-based Villalobos and Loderbauer have already carved formidable names in electronic music, the former as minimal techno DJ/producer, the latter with names including Moritz Von Oswald and Sun Electric. Their ECM-derived “sound-structures” started life after Villalobos started slipping Arvo Pärt into DJ sets, joined by Loderbauer to rework the likes of Pärt, Christian Wailomrod, John Abercrombie and Alexander Knaifel, building on the originals by remixing, sampling or creating new sounds.
The results forge beyond the usual ambient or soundtrack terrains. Rarely less than intricately pin-drop-mesmerising, bottomless oceans of sonic resonance morph around ghostly pulses (sometimes recalling mid-period Orb), spectral melodies and striking stretches such as Wallumprød’s Requote – now sounding like the Third Ear Band relocated to the Titanic after it’s sunk. While “new” musical strains such as dubstep flounder in tame clichés, these otherworldly launch-pads have spawned something supremely evocative, perfectly in sync with this monumental label’s evervisionary ethos.
