Steinbrüchel - Opaque (+Re) - Room40 - CD

Room40 is a label that has quietly ploughed away releasing high quality experimental Electronica in a variety of styles. Under the guidance of Lawrence English and considerable help from John Chantler they have formed an impressive catalogue of releases including artists such as Tujoko Noriko, Oren Ambarchi, Greg Davis, Dj Olive, David Toop and Scanner, to name but a few. This single-minded dedication to producing the finest releases in lvely packaging is beginning to pay off, and whilst it can be a struggle for small, independant labels to get a foot in the door, so to speak, they appear to be going about it in entirely the correct fashion.

Which brings us onto this latest release...

Steinbrüchel was comisioned to provide a piece of music for an exhibition in Berne, Switzerland during Spring 2003. The concept was for it to played in the surround listening room, so, as you can imagine it has a spacious and wide-open feel. It's very pleasing to discover that the work translates into the stereo domain with a great deal of ease and instantly has the feel of a classic digital minimalist track of the variety released by 12k or Spekk.

Intricately woven and initially full of static, clicks and pops, it soon begins its journey into a more melodic style using pure tones, textures and waveforms. It's subtle and beautiful and has a lot in common with the work of Taylor Deupree using, as it does, the more coherent kind of sounds to envelop the listener. You might say it has a drone feel to it, but with mid-range sounds that penetrate into ones consciousness.

On its own, this track would be superb, but Room40 commisioned five artists to reinterpret the original in a range of different and very intriguing styles.

Chris Abrahams, Ben Frost, Taylor Deupree, Oren Ambarchi and Toshiya Tsunoda were all given three soundfiles to work from and a remit that utilises the particular strengths of each artist. So, Abrahams combines the files with piano, Frost uses only feedback, Deupree works with the melody, Ambarchi works in combination with guitar and finally Tsunoda uses only the field recording aspects.

A fabulous idea and one that reaps massive dividends when listening to the final compositions.

Chris Abrahams' work is delicate yet extremely abstract and combines a freeflowing, unsyncopated style of piano tinkling that's much like a toybox but with an added depth. I won't say 'Jazzy' because I think that's missing the point somewhat, but there's a free feel to it which is very pleasing. Combined with the icy texture in the back ground that works almost as a chord progression, it's an engaging and surprisingly fun piece of music.

Ben Frost opts for a more sub-zero aspect to his version. Using a deep manpulation of the chord sound along with glitch sounds he's created a track that is, conceptually, closer to the work of Ambarchi than the other musicians involved, but has a much lighter feel. The way the texture builds and morphs is something that will keep you coming back to it and the fractured moments of broken clicks punctuates the whole piece very nicely. At ten minutes long it's just the right length to hypnotize you all the way through. A beautiful work.

Taylor Deupree is one of those artists that you can rely on time and again and here he puts together a trademark track that has all the hallmarks of quality from beginning to end. Melodically superb (and it's always worth bearing in mind that 'melody' has a very different meaning in this form of music than the traditional idea what's musical) and as ever just the right side of abstract it has that slightly drone-based feel that hooks you straight away coupled with incredibly subtle bacjkground percussion that's barely there yet entirely integral to the track. Quite superb.

Oren Ambarchi's guitar-based version occupies similar territory to his recent output and immediately delivers a strong hit of layered drone pleasure. It's a very dense sound which combines a deep bass tone with high end frequencies and very little in between. Highly resonant and mind-fillingly potent, it's just a shame it's so short as I could have listened to it for a whole lot longer.

Finally Toshiya Tsunoda works some serious magic with the soundfiles in conjunction with field recordings to give us an environmental sound based piece. A persuasive collection of sounds work together to give the piece a sense of isolation and loneliness that's at once comforting, yet slightly disturbing. At times it's easy to forget you've actually got anything playing as it melds with the general background hubbub of modern life. Every now and again though you'll notice the ultra-high frequency that sits at the very edge of the hearing range and be reminded that you are, in fact, listening to a beautifully put together piece of experimental Electronica.

This, for me, is the finest Room40 release so far and when you consider the label's output up to this point you'll realise that I don't say this lightly. Essentially it's an exemplary collection of forward thinking minimalist music and for fans of 12k, Spekk, Apestaartje, Touch and other such labels, it's simply a must.