Sun Electric, Max Loderbauer, Tom Thiel - Live at Votivkirche Wien (2023)

Sun Electric, the Berlin-based electronic music duo of Tom Thiel and Max Loderbauer, were among the pioneers of “live” electronica presentation in the early 1990s, when options for real-time reproduction of one’s sound were a fraction of what we enjoy today. Perhaps a spiritual successor to earlier forms of “kosmische” music, which saw the exploration of outer and inner space as being equally worthwhile undertakings, Sun Electric’s music was expansive, epic, and involving in a way that prioritized the communion between sounds and listeners over the public exposition of the musicians’ personalities. Space was, of course, utilized as an instrument unto itself: a fact that is evident in this new release of a notable 1996 set in which Sun Electric performed at the neo-Gothic Votivkirche in Vienna. Over 75 minutes of performance time, the duo took full advantage of the 20-second reverb decay time offered by the space.

It’s the consistent application of these strengths which allows the music of Sun Electric not to be a “nostalgic trip” to a simpler time, but very much a part of the musical dialogue of the present.