Dorian Concept is Austrian electronic musician Oliver Thomas Johnson. His previous album "When Planets Explode" - which I have only heard little snippets of- is an explosive dancefloor orientated album with with a vibrant and cacaphonic range of sounds and jagged, scattered changes in register. This is a very different album that I like more. Whereas his previous album relied on a microkorg, Joined Ends is made using a wurlitzer piano and analogue synthesizers. Most often the synthesizers are emulating wind instruments, saxophones and flutes in particular. The overall tone of the album is bright and optimistic, maybe even christmas-y and choral in their reliance on vocal emulator choruses and bell sounds. The opening track "The Sky Opposite" is twinkling and hypnotic while fast-paced, like a josiah wolf beat. My favorite track is "Clap Track 4", with what sounds like several high pitched choral style singers (but which is probably just Oliver himself looped in harmony) singing something that I maybe didn't understand because it's austrian, in a swinging and neighborly sounding melody. "Nest Nest" is similar, with a more transcendant sounding chorus over very simple emulated strings, bells, and synthesized wind instruments. It adds up to something really simple and elegant and beautiful. "The Few" is more driving and aggressive, utilizing live drumming and washed out vocals to create something like a much more muted Prefuse 73 track. The closing piece Tried (Now Tired) is a longer piece that begins with a more cinematic, dramatic narrative sound and devolves into a sparse, twinkling melody, scaling up and down piano keys until the sound and the album fizzle out.
No comments:
Post a Comment