Rene Hell - The Terminal Symphony‎ (2011)

Over the last 2 years Rene Hell has emerged as one of the most distinctive characters from a wave of neo-Kosmische and synth noise operators. Since his debut album for Type, 'Porcelain Opera', his restless talent has been diverted into cassettes for Night People and Agents Of Chaos, a brilliant 7" track for Kraak and sterling collaborations with Daren Ho's Driphouse as Cuticle and Mandelbrot & Skyy, all displaying an artist confidently in his creative stride. 'The Terminal Symphony' is a bold evolution of his sound, reframing analogue synth and drum machine experiments with a more concise, obsessively structured and complex form of minimalism, making each sound count rather than allowing them to become lost in the glut of meandering, often flabby drone compositions that bulk out the genre. It's an efficient aesthetic in the lineage of the original North Rhine sound of E.M.A.K, Kraftwerk, Conny Plank and co, also sharing much in common with Emeralds' most recent move towards brief, song-like structuring, but still with that demented twinge of wickedly jarring harmonies and a taste for visceral synth textures and noise. This is all heard in the malleable chrome shapes of opener 'Chamber Forte', through the glassy geometrics of 'Cello Suite No.3' or the ecstatic modern classicism of 'Juliard Op', but when the intensity subsides the subtleties of closers 'Detuned Clarinet' and 'Adagio For String Portrait' beautifully contrast with melancholy and understated, but arresting, finesse. RIYL Emeralds, Radio People, E.M.A.K. or AFX - Highly Recommended.

TRACKLIST
1 Chamber Force
2 Quiet Detail Muse
3 Cello Suite No 3
4 E S Des Grauens In Fifths
5 Baroque Ensemble Coda
6 Lighthouse Marvel
7 Juliard Op 66
8 Oxford Meter End
9 Detuned Clarinet
10 Adagio For String Portrait