‘Shadows Documents’ takes a different
tack, however, drawing inspiration
from the sounds of Kenya and grafting
“acoustic impressions” of the country
with electronic motifs and pulses. There
are no direct field recordings as such (if
there are, they’re inaudible), but instead
a focus on the hypnotic rhythms of tribal
music – where Kenya meets krautronics.
SCHNEIDER
KACIREK
Shadows Documents
Bureau B
African vibes meet German
engineering on these warm and
absorbing soundscapes
There’s a real sense of layering as the
album progress and it becomes a fully
immersive experience, a scintillating
listen full of warmth and charm. Rooted
in analogue electronica, virtuoso
percussion and soporific repetition,
the whole thing feels very much like a
dream sequence, enveloping you in its
subtle atmospheres. The opening track,
‘Doubles’, with its rumbling groove and
stratum of electronic clatters and bleeps,
is like a malfunctioning ECG monitor.
The chirpy ‘Birds, Bell And Sticks’ has the
bare bones of an imperceptible drum ‘n’
bass beat lurking beneath the surface.
With the sinister, creeping rattle of ‘Low
Rhythm’, you sense that something
untoward is about to spring out from
the undergrowth. On ‘We Will Need
Each Other’, meanwhile, the background
crackles like the gentle maelstrom of
hundreds of scurrying insects.
Details materialise at regular intervals –
the mix is littered with clicks and cuts,
vaguely touching on elements of dub and
even the occasional bit of improv – so
there’s never a sense of vapid repetition.
It all comes to a head on the final track,
‘Spiegelmotiv’, by which point Schneider
and Kacirek have really found their mojo,
as an oscillating backbeat locks horns
with a head-nodding array of percussive
buzzes and throbs. It’s absorbing stuff, as
is the entire album. Despite its reliance
on synthesisers and programmed beats,
it’s to the duo’s credit that ‘Shadows
Documents’ feels inherently organic,
rather than a perfunctory electronic
afterthought.
VELIMIR ILIC
On paper, this collaboration between
German musicians Stefan Schneider and
Sven Kacirek is a mighty appealing and
intriguing prospect. It’s a real meeting
of minds: Schneider is one of the
founding members of seminal krautrock
outfit Kreidler and electronic postrockers To Rococo Rot, and has worked
with everyone from Hans-Joachim
Roedelius and Bill Wells to St Etienne
and Alexander Balanescu, while indemand percussionist/producer Kacirek’s
CV includes the likes of Hauschka, Nils
Frahm and Marc Ribot.
Fusing African rhythms with dark
electronica, ‘Shadows Documents’
sees Schneider and Kacirek indulge
their obvious love and fascination for
Kenya, where they have both spent a
considerable amount of time in recent
years. In some ways, it’s a progression
from the pair’s field recordings of
the Mijikenda tribes in and around
Mukunguni village on the Kenyan coast
(released as ‘Mukunguni’ on Damon
Albarn’s Honest Jon’s label in 2013).
Pic: Peter Stumpf