Wolfgang Mitterer - Temp Tracks [Col Legno]

Put on the circuit via the long standing imprint that is Col Legno on July 30th, 2k21 is "Temp Tracks", the latest album outing by widely praised and multi-awarded Austrian composer Wolfgang Mitterer who weighs in a total of 37 tracks and miniatures rolled out over a total playtime of roughly 56 minutes. With what seems to be a conceptual approach of having all track titles starting with either a variation of "Temp..." (01-20) or "Ton..." (21-37) Mitterer presents a collection of what is referred to as 'preliminary music' in the accompanying press sheet - functional pieces serving as a temporary soundtrack for film sequences until the actual score is finished, placeholders of sorts with whom the artist is well familiar with, especially being in high demand as a composer of scores for film, theatre and opera himself. This said and despite the general functional nature of the music itself the album provides a fascinating listening experience with the opening tune "Temp" even making use of the classic 'music's hypnotizing' vocal sample which became engrained in the early electronic music and rave scene due to its appearance in multiple seminal UK Hardcore and Breakbeat tracks throughout the first half of the 90s, incorporating echoes of opera and dramatic Classical arrangements in others whilst bits like "Templar" seem to pair dark, threatening electronics with processed samples taken from highly explicit porn, the subsequent "Template" provides the nightly soundtrack to a fairytale, bits like "Tempt" go down a road of full on collage techniques, "Toneless" evokes memories of both DarkJazz and Illbient whereas compositions like "Tonepad" pay homage to the upright bass, just to name a few. Defo recommended for an audience made up of score collectors, film geeks and avantgarde connaisseurs, this one.


Album artwork on Instagram!