Revered Hamburg musician, synthesist and DJ RVDS joins the Bureau B ranks with the meditative and mellifluous sounds of ‘Moods and Dances 2021’ - a musical present from the future past.
Inspired by the otherworldly exotica and imaginative electronics of library music’s golden age, Richard von der Schulenberg conjures palm trees and pyramids, promenades and portals, all observed from the heart of a Holodeck. Seven Of Nine tracks are named after the equipment used to create them, offering an additional journey through the patch bay-mayhem of the RVDS home studio, and paying homage to the tonal nuance among his collection.
Now whether he’s atop Mt. Acid with a molten 303, caressing tender Fender keys through an improvised jazz set or live scoring some stage-based theatrics, Richard’s music always offers an immersive experience, but perhaps never more directly than this latest opus.
We wash up on the digital shoreline of ‘Mrs Yamaha’s Summer Tune’, sparkling with salt water and the shimmer of polished mallets and subtle percussion. ‘Caravan of the Pentamatics’ heads inland through the tree line, carving a silk road through Ethiopian jazz tones and snaking rhythms until it encounters the mystical presence of The Farfisa Sphinx. Cryptic melodies float a top a bed of spheric bass, intangible and irresistible until they fade into the sand storm. The gentle and jazzy ‘Roland’s Night Walk’ provides a little rest from the desert deities, though distant gunshot and the unceasing cicadas add tension to the moonlit majesty of those delicate keys. The dawn brings heartbreak via the dewy melodies and tonal malady of Richard’s DX7, but somewhere someone’s dancing to the propulsive bassline, eerie vocals and Arabesque sounds of ‘The Space Pentas’, a little kosmische boogie which just builds and builds. But dervish whirls are thirsty business, so it follows you should take a drinks break at the ‘Wersimatic Space Bar’, a sophisticated kind of cantina awash with exotica. Then the boogie is back for the penultimate track, a deranged, demented and diabolical bit of commune chaos brought back from ‘Planet Dragon’, and translated into a Radiophonic workout. Parting is such sweet sorrow on any planet, and ‘The End (Lala)’ captures the sentiment superbly, serving space sirens, somnolent bass sounds and bursts of static at a stately tempo.
Though Library inspired, and undoubtedly indebted to the hardware in action, this intriguing intergalactic trip is more passionate than a pastiche; playful, poetic and enigmatic in true RVDS fashion.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: Hamburg's synth genius RVDS fires up the hardware to create a mystical homage to the Italian library records of old. Alongside the Balearic lullabies and digital exotica there are also a couple of groovers for the more adventurous dance floor ("Dance Of The Space Pentax" I'm looking at you!)
TRACK LISTING
A1. Mrs Yamahas Summer Tune
A2. Caravan Of The Pentamatics
A3. Flowers For The Farfisa Sphinx
A4. Rolands Night Walk
A5. DX7s Broken Hearts
B1. Dance Of The Space Pentax
B2. Wersimatic Space Bar
B3. Planet Dragon
B4. The End (La La)
