Building on the sound of a soft damped piano, including the breathing and squeaking sounds of the piano’s inner mechanics, “Petrichor“ risks being compared to the reference artist of the genre, Nils Frahm.
A comparision I guess almost every artists would fail.
But Harnes Kretzer avoids this pitfall by cleverly meandering from melancholic piano melodies to more electronic sound paintings, squeezing “each acoustic element through a magnitude of digital effects to reappear as a homogenic adventure to a never heard acoustic cosmos.”
“Petrichor“ is a Greek word for ‘the scent raindrops arouse falling on dry ground’ – and if you can imagine that scent, you also have an idea of the freshness of this album.
This is my first acquaintance with the music of Harnes Kretzer, and though Discogs only refers to “Petrichor”, the discography on his site mentions three solo albums and two collaborations (both with Lucid Sky).
So there’s more to explore:
OHRENBETÄUBERENDE STILLE – NO. 1
A collaboration project of Harnes Kretzer with Christian Pensel (Lucid Sky) – with a name that’s a bit hard to translate (it means something like ‘Ear-Enchanting Slence’).
The duo’s intention is ‘to bring Ambient music “back to stage”. Music that breathes, sprouts and grows – beautiful and fleeting as a soap bubble.’
‘The two musicians adapts the grammar of Post-Rock; digital instruments are deliberately avoided. They are replaced instead by electric guitar, Rhodes piano and saxophone (among many others), which are modulated through analog effects – sometimes beyond recognition.’
The ‘post-rock grammar’ also translates to the long playing time of the four tracks: 13, 9, 18 and 12 minutes (each separated by 5 second pauses).
The choice of instruments and the creation of an atmosphere slowly building up in improvised sets seems to draw its inspiration directly from Germany’s famous Krautrock episode from the 70’s. But at the same time it’s definitely contemporary music!
If you’re tired of ‘live’ performances by laptop artists, missing the traditional musician’s craftmanship, Ohrenbetäuberende Stille might be a revelation.
Let’s hope to see them bringing their music ‘back to stage’soon.