Bernhard Günter: monochrome white | polychrome w/neon nails

gun-mwpnn.jpg (6k) Bernhard Günter: monochrome white | polychrome w/neon nails
(LINE - 2001)

Packaged with appropriately gauzey slips of paper around the informative liner notes, monochrome white and its compatriot disc polychrome w/neon nails are Bernhard Günter's successful attempt at creating an especially "light" series of soundscenes... Hey, I've got a new name for LINE's hyperquiet outings... infinitesimalectronics.

The single track of monochrome white (44:02) simply streams forth the tiniest of hisses, crackles and clicks... like motes of dust dancing in a flashlight beam... or perhaps on a larger, more-organic scale, it could be gnats crazily circling an incandescant bulb (with the occasional sizzle as one gets too close) to the sound of distant crickets. Even with headphones at full volume though, I get more outside interference than I would hope.

Louder, stronger (and hence "buggier"), polychrome w/neon nails (also 44:02) delivers the same scene on a comparatively magnified level... crisper articulations mean that this time you practically can hear the insectile whirr of wings and clicking of mandibles; all the while, cicadas roar in that wavering drone they're known for (if you're not into the whole "bug" analogy, other options might include "crunchy molecules at play", "microphone in the frying pan" or "electrified champagne bubbling in your ear canal"...).

Unless you're needing a fix of fizzy wallpaper-for-the ears, monochrome white and polychrome w/neon nails succeed more on a theoretical/creative level than on a just-plain-old-listening level... not that there aren't enticements to Bernhard Günter's 8.1 microminimal textures.

The microspecialists at the LINE label are at the forefront of the infinitesimalectronics field.

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This review posted July 31, 2001

AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).