In Print  Home  Directories  Reviews  Get In Touch  Forums  Links  Gig Guide  

Johannes Contag: Sleepytime vol2: Schlafwandler

The publicity material for Johannes Contag's 'Schlafwandler' references Fleetwood Mac's 'seminal trip-out', evokes 'atmospheric music chimes, ocean sounds, piano arpeggios and bird song', and mentions 'an unashamed homage to the pioneers of filter-sweep drones'. Let none of this put you off a wonderful album of inspired ambient surreality. Contag is the producer behind a number of your favourite Dunedin iconoclasts including Cloudboy, David Kilgour and Mink. Working from a blank page for the second time (after 1998's 'you are feeling sleepy'), he starts with real instruments - piano, guitar, keyboard - and stretches them to the limit of his studio's capability. In the stand-out first track a piano note is left hanging for 15 minutes, its resonance deepening into a swirl of harmonics until finally joined by majestic Blade Runner-esque synthesiser strains. The next track wanders off in a totally different direction, leaving drone-land for sweet guitar ditty country. Two chords travel a long way washed in organ melody. The album continues in gentle fashion, milking beauty out of the simplest of tunes from flutes, chimes, and even the maligned filter-sweep drones. 'Schlafwandler' (German for sleepwalker) is a rich and charming soundtrack for your dream states, alternately light and deep. Contag skips among ambient touchstones from Brian Eno to Labradford, and turns up something lovely and original.

Related Information