Thomas Brinkmann - A Certain Degree of Stasis (2016)

Arch minimalist Thomas Brinkmann presents A Certain Degree of Stasis in two parts of variably “fierce digital textures” and “sustained crystalline calm” in counterpoint audio response to Agnes Lux’s starkly monochrome visual work, which is reproduced on the cover artwork. The work is intended to be played individually, in conjunction, or together with previous releases on the Frozen Reeds label.

Disc 1 tends to the “fierce digital textures” quota with 40 minutes of sustained guitar feedback heard in an ether dream, dissolving into acres of free-floating space like Oren Ambarchi or Keiji Haino caressing a wounded axe in the dying moments of its existence, its life coruscating and calving away before its eyes.

On the other disc he subtly inverts that aesthetic, reducing the lead to a discordant ember flickering below layered drone harmonics pregnant with anticipation for a haunting sound image that only reveals itself through duration.