Published by Davide Pappalardo on June 25, 2016
Sans-fin is the brainchild of Leipzig based DJ Hell, an artist committed to ambient / IDM music full of glitch and rhythmic elements. After his 2015 digital only debut Orage Magnétique, he returns for Raumklang Music with his sophomore album Vivre Confinè, in which he continues his work on IDM material, expanding the genre boundaries without any preconception or reverence to dogmas; here we find dark and evocative ambient movements enriched by rhythmic crescendos and sound layers, in which both the emotional and the physical side of music are evoked.
We start with Soivre son cours and its dream-like, deep atmospheres, which give us eerie soundscapes soon followed by a placid rhythmic march that guides us through the track amidst the evocative ethereal sounds and epic motifs. The usage of sound layers, stop and go and charming rhythms, is the main weapon used in this enthralling starting point. Conclusion follows the ambient inspiration, but in a darker and sparser way, building a controlled tension that grows with the adding of sounds and movements: it never explodes, maintaining a calm IDM-ambient approach where arpeggios and eerie effects are protagonists. Rèsignation uses a more direct approach, giving us a rhythmic obsession where dark layers of sound and swinging beats are enriched by piano keys, while Vèritè opts for modular sounds and grizzled atmospheres, soon matched by composed rhythmic glitch structures.
Gare de metrò is an atmospheric and noisy ambient piece where piano keys and field recordings are linked with timbric pulses and orchestral, ethereal arches: it’s more of an audio-documentary than a song, mesmerizing the listener with its placid, but obsessive, songwriting. Abouler closes the circle with a track reminiscent of the more ambient moments of Aphex Twin, in which the rhythmic section is not based on beats at the start, using instead layers of sound in an adding crescendo; at 2:52 minutes a pulsating movement takes its place, with a more bombastic sound design that does not forget the use of ethereal and dreamy soundscapes.
A work made to be experienced in a solitary environment, generating by its sound a world made of mind-pictures and personal stories that are own of the listener; this is not by any means dancefloor material, something that it doesn’t even inspire to be, an electronic music album that requires an attentive listening session far from mundane matters. This is one of the many sides of Raumklang Music, a label that offers many less known, but not less deserving of attention, artists of the rhythmic / IDM / ambient spectrum. Once again something we gladly encourage to discover.
Label: Raumklang Music
Rating: 7,5