Jan St. Werner - Felder [Thrill Jockey Records 410 / Fiepblatter Catalogue #4]

Coming in from Chicago's Thrill Jockey Records label and its sub- / sister branch Fiepblatter Catalogue is "Felder", the latest album by Jan St.Werner, known as prolific solo artist as well as for his work in the globally appreciated band outfit Mouse On Mars. Within the ten tracks of this longplay effort the artist groups a couple of tunes performed live - with additional contributions of Max & John Ferguson, Alexander Jovanovic, David Grubbs and Tim Johnson this is - throughout the years 2011 to 2015, covering a musical spectrum from organic The Notwist / Alien Transistor reminiscing Post-PostRock that meets additional electronic works here and there in the opening piece entitled "Beardman", turns its head towards full on electronic experimentalisms and highly complex digital filters being intertwined with more organic structures and what seem to be far away echoes of found sounds, amalgamated in a well familiar, warm and welcoming way to provide a 14+ minutes journey into sound named "Osho" which seems to be subdivided into several independent parts whilst "Kroque AF" gravitates towards glitch-influenced Ambient and some hard hitting strokes with a slightly robotic, yet retrofuturist sci-fi twist. The short skit "Foggy Esor Pt.1" comes across in a quite psychedelia-driven, partially krautsy and defo friendly way, "The Somewhere That Is Moving", the second piece exceeding the ten minutes mark on this album, grabs the listeners attention with the introduction of warm piano tones that immediately and seamlessly turn into short and skipping digital loops - think: early Oval - which are accompanied by echoes of reprocessed FreeJazz and precise bass pulses evolving into larger waves emphasizing the blurry, yet kinda romantic overall feel of this well-scenic piece that holds quite a disturbing surprise ca. mid-tune before seemingly recalling a classic DJ Shadow intro sequence for a few seconds. Furthermore "Slipped Through The Heaven" takes the use of piano sequences towards glitched and highly reprocessed levels without getting rid of the tender and romantic nature the instrument can provide, especially alongside off-kilter strings and twisted sound mutations, "The Abstract Pit" starts of with the alarming sounds of German stuka bombers - or a pretty precise sonic effigy - before getting lost somewhat in between lonely, alienated Piano Jazz abstractions and lost bleeps as well as highly scientific sounds of seemingly modular nature whilst "Foggy Esor Pt. 2" presents itself in a cute, playful and uplifting mood, kinda. Finally we see "Singoth" amalgamating ultradigital buzzing and organic Ambient Jazz whilst the concluding "Rain Deer" provides a peaceful, slightly kitsch-induced farewell to all lovers of weird, yet friendly electronic sounds coming from a wonderful array of presumably vintage synthesizers and their nice'n'wonderful friends. What a sweet ending for an album as highly recommended as this one.  Get!

Album artwork on Instagram!