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Dusted Reviews
Artist: Lutz Glandien Album: Lost in Rooms Label: ReR Megacorp Review date: Jan. 29, 2004 |
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Lost in Rooms instills the desire to choreograph movements for a modern dance troupe, a la La La La Human Steps. It’s no coincidence then that this recording was produced for Duty Free, a production by Rubato, a Berlin based dance company. Room is made for movement, but can also function as music for steep reflection. Part industrial soundscapes and part IDM stylings, yet Glandien’s latest thrives at a level of cerebral maturity that avoids the trappings inherent in genre trends. This is ultimately an audio documentary in social studies, hence the subtitle, A Virtualectric Story.
This CD is structured around a narrative by Daelik, a Canadian dancer who relates trite stories about growing up with a large family in small town Canada. The narratives are set within layered atmospheric-cum-noise pieces that are somewhat dark in mood, bringing to mind Muslimgauze or early Front 242. The rush of air currents and boiler room hum function as rough canvases or industrial walls for the spoken words to become all the more stark and pronounced.
Interrupting the flow of the narratives are rapid-fire IDM breaks. The constructs are mind numbingly intricate, like the inner workings of a stopwatch. The tracks are speedily precise and complex. Glandien utilizes re-assembled splinters of sounds sources, collaged in melodic order. The effect is roughly similar to playing an Autechre album at 45 rpm, and Glandien’s take is just as original and cerebral.
When the atmospherics kick-in again, Daelik’s narrative resumes, like stumbling into an open courtyard after twisting through a labyrinth. Daelik rambles on about childhood antics and returning to his town many years later to find the innocence of his home town lost over a post-industrial landscape of crumbling silos and rusted out train box cars.
One of the unique qualities about Lost in Rooms is Glandiens’s use of the human voice for the IDM tracks. Glandien recorded spoken texts from English, Estonian, German and Chinese speaking people, then spliced together disparate consonants and vowels to form mutant phrasings. These sources give the IDM constructs an eerie, organic feel that is deliciously unsettling and totally unique.
By I Khider
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View all articles by I Khider