Zauberberg is a fascinating ambient symphony by Kassel Jaeger, Stephan Mathieu and Akira Rabelais, inspired by Thomas Mann’s book and Debussy’s music.
Stephan Mathieu also mastered Kevin Verwijmeren’s new album, ‘Those Glorious Heights’.
Also: Tobias Hellkvist’s full length album Vesterhavet, and an EP-trilogy from Tomoro Nozaki.
The sound design for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi / horror classic Alien (1979) has been an inspiration to many.
On Before Nostromo, Stephan Mathieu focuses on the crew, not on the spaceship.
Using piano, gongs, shortwave receiver, tapeloops and ‘entropic processes’, he re-creates the (soundtrack of the) dreams of the crew members just before they awake from hibernation.
The ink of the cover of his previous release “Sacred Grounds” had barely dried when Stephan Mathieu announced his new release called “Nachtstücke“.
(metaphorically speaking of course: these are both download-only releases).
The first thing to notice is that the full release of these “Night Pieces” is 260 minutes in length – that’s about a half night’s sleep!
For most – if not all – listeners, four hours and twenty minutes of extended droning is simply too much for concentrated listening. So that obviously is not what this music is intended for.
The music of “Sacred Ground” is created for a documentary film (by Tim Grünewald and Ludwig Schmidtpeter) about the Wounded Knee and Mount Rushmore memorial sites in South Dakota:
“Two memorials in the heart of America. Two hours’ drive but worlds apart. Mount Rushmore is an icon of the United States, attracting millions of visitors each year. The Wounded Knee Massacre Site receives just a handful of visitors each day.”
It is also inspired by (and dedicated to) Florian Fricke, who created soundtracks with Popol Vuh for many Werner Herzog movies.
