Returning from turbulent seas: Paul Haslinger's Exit Ghost II

 

Being an influential member, even if temporarily, of a legendary band with individual voice in the global music landscape can affect later on the way in which the band's fans react to one's solo albums... especially when those significantly depart from what is "expected" by those fans. 

If a band is as long-lived and influential as Tangerine Dream is, then its ex-members' solo efforts inevitably get compared by fans, and not just, to the style and sonic universe of the TD albums from various eras. 

When Christopher Franke released his highly visual, descriptive (thus, in classical terms, program) music on his first solo album (Pacific Coast Highway), there were not only ovations... but also dismay from some. It was not "like TD". It was "disappointingly" not TD. 

Paul Haslinger, another notable name in Tangerine Dream history, has quite a few soundtrack, solo, and collaborative albums under his belt. Even so, his fragile, almost translucent, ethereal album Exit Ghost stunned some - not in a positive way. It was a radical departure not only from TD, but also from his own previous creations... 

Probably similar things happen with the new album, Exit Ghost II... One can always judge a composer by the musical range he/she is capable of (even if one is not subjectively enjoying some segments of that range), or one can just judge it by comparisons with what is "expected". In latter case, it seems useful to provide a very early hint to those listeners - and let them know that this album, too is a radical departure from "expected" TD-like music. 

Its predecessor was born under exceptional circumstances - and this sequel comes just when the world is trying to return from the lengthy shock that was Covid's arrival. 

To quote, the album was "born out of an incessant need to escape the trauma that has gripped the world for the last year coupled with an urge to complement the introspective and moody atmospherics of the last record, ‘Exit Ghost II’ is the counter-element that closes the circle".

The very first things to remark is that it does have a wider sonic range, with even orchestral textures - it does feel more luminous and emotionally charged. However, it still has that sublime quality that we heard on the first album, and entire passages of it can only be compared to the gentle, remarkably introspective soundscapes we hear on Ryuichi Sakamoto's Async or many Olafur Arnalds albums. 

Cambium, the opening track does place us in the minimalist, charming, piano- and electronic percussion-based Universe we may hear on Arnalds albums. Other piano-centric tracks like Septuagint are playful, adventurous, this particular one playing with 7/8 time signature that is refreshing to hear after so many metric tonnes of firmly 4/4-based electronic music...

Emerald is an example of the ethereal beauty Haslinger can conjure from some floating electronic textures and a few perfect gems of piano motifs. Translucent, exactly as the title suggests, is another example, where choral sounds are at the same time Earth-bound and otherworldly. 

Waltz II and Inversion III return us to a piano-based sonic world, with the former bringing lovely melancholy, while the latter moving out into more experimental-sounding chromaticism.

Mishkin has again an ethereal feel that can be perhaps described as something that Thomas Newman fans would love: fragile, translucent textures punctuated by gentle piano chords. So is Schubert IX Coda, which combines infinitely delicate electronics with subtle piano notes and chords.

The closing track, A Young Fellow is not only standing out with its rich orchestral feel, but it is also charming with its use of voice samples - and overall an uplifting, optimistic ending to the album.

As the notes of the album state, Paul Haslinger’s ‘Exit Ghost II’ is the composer’s quest for arrival after a year lost at sea. 

After a bizarre and in many ways dark, anxiety-permeated year, this follow-up album, ending with aforementioned uplifting track filled with optimism, is really a successful antidote to 2020's dark clouds...

S-A-W waves of the past, Ghosts of the present

In somewhat quick succession, certain camps of electronic music afficionados could treat themselves to two new releases with stellar pedigree...

After some solo and group ventures, one of the pivotal ex-members of Tangerine Dream, Johannes Schmoelling has teamed up with Kurt Ader, and Robert Waters under the S-A-W project name.

Their first outing on a full-blown album wears the aptly chosen title Iconic...

Two characteristics can be noticed immediately when listening to the album.

First of all, we are on very cosy and familiar territory in terms of the sub-genre of electronic music we are being treated to. No major surprises, no stylistic shocks, and thankfully no drifting into highly commercial trendy territories. This is competent and confident "Berlin School" electronica, as the first delayed sequencer patterns tells us some seconds into the first track.

Secondly, we might be able to distinguish very specific personal styles (e.g. Schmoelling's chromaticism is instantly recognisable), but this musical collaboration is one that gels very well, so-to-speak. The individual contributions are combining very well, without very firm separation lines running through the music material.

In terms of range, we are treated to quite a lot. From high-spirited sequencer patterns to vintage vocoders to catchy melodic leads to almost improvisation-sounding piano wanderings we have everything here. The album has even a rather dark and atmospheric middle section, when things turn more experimental.

Some of the tracks have the feel of a very successful jam session, with lead motifs hovering above a bed of confidently ticking and spiraling sequencer motifs. Some are so catchy that are venturing almost into the territory of retro synthwave tunes.

With the risk of sounding as if one is expecting some magnanimous musical innovation, instead of a comfortable return to quintessential Berlin School musical language... one aspect of this album is just that: it is a return to something very welcomed but also very familiar.

In many ways, this is a retrospective look at a musical language that is very close to our Tangerine Dreaming hearts & minds, hence one can very much welcome it and enjoy it. However, it really is gazing into the past - and the intention seems clear, with the use of vocoders, certain specific patches, and truly vintage sweeping filtered noise effects and the like.

One can very much hope this is just the first S-A-W album of many, and hopefully this collaboration will have more longevity than Loom had.

Something that is, however, very "now" is the new album by another eminent ex-Tangerine Dream member, Paul Haslinger.

After a number of high-profile or unfortunately overlooked soundtracks, too, one might expect an energetic and possibly high-octane electronic journey. Instead, the album that was born out of almost a decade of piano improvisations brings us something highly contemplative and introspective.

If we experienced delicious nostalgia whilst listening to Iconic, Haslinger's album Exit Ghosts is something from a vastly different musical Universe.

If one takes Ryuichi Sakamoto's astonishingly delicate album async [sic], any of Olafur Arnalds's more piano-centric solo works, or Nils Frahm's piano textures, then one can build an image about that particular Universe.

Exit Ghost is firmly situating itself in that sonic world. Again, no major surprises and no huge leaps into some never before heard experimental directions... However, the rather special beauty of this album is just how subtle and seamless the musical journey is.

We get almost translucent textures like some sonic nebulae, with infinitely delicate tiny motifs. Every piano note has its own life, sometimes we can hear them blending in with the sonic textures, in other moments they hover on their own in mid-air and make us appreciate the delicate process that created them.

Once again would commit here the sacrilege of not going through the album in a track-by-track fashion - as, perhaps even more so than Iconic, Exit Ghost works best as part of a full album listening experience.

There are moments of such delicate sonic sculpting that it makes one think of the most vaporous and subtle moments of Thomas Newman soundtracks, where a single sound can express seeming impossible range of things. There are moments of melodic motifs that will not go away in the mind, and will hover around the room for many hours after the album itself finished playing.

As abstract as it may sound to say this, and even ludicrously "new age" in terminology, but Exit Ghost is like a highly meditative sonic cleansing that will push away all the madness and turmoil of the everyday reality. It does this without being that type of empty musical escapism that we find in myriad "new age" records - and this album comes with a huge degree of artistic honesty.

In our noisy and trend-chasing world, it is quite a fete to be treated to two such albums, both very firmly rooted in their own respective, and vastly different, sonic Universe.

After a journey into a splendid and Iconic past, as different as it is, giving a spin (or a streaming) to the here-and-now expressive minimalism of Exit Ghost is a highly recommended double treat.

From vintage to new territories: Peter Baumann and Paul Haslinger's Neuland Project

It is fair to say that a collaboration album from two musicians like Peter Baumann and Paul Haslinger is no ordinary event in the timeline of electronic music history. In latter history, both names occupy a significant section with not just their time spent as members of the veritable institution that was and is Tangerine Dream, but also with their solo careers.

First of all, one must stress: this is not an album that rides some fashionable wave of mainstream electronica. Also, whilst it does have some not quite veiled references to musical elements one first heard in Tangerine Dream compositions, Neuland is not a recreation of some period from that band's history.

Something that may instantly captivate the listener, right from the first track, is the very evident pedigree of the two musicians. Whilst both had notable solo careers, the immediately recognisable Tangerine Dream DNA is very much present in the opening track's sequencer work.

The sequenced background and vintage-sounding lead propels us back to the mid-to-late 1970s TD sound. Thus, the opening track (Cascade 39) is in many ways pointing to a fondly remembered past rather than futuristic soundscapes.

Things change several times as the album progresses - already the second track, Road To Danakil, shows that darker atmospherics and thundering electronics are not at all alien to the two composers. In a way, one might recognise a certain gravitas in the arrangements and sonic choices, familiar to those who have heard the Machines Of Desire recent solo album by Peter Baumann.

One could always play the game of trying to guess which musician was responsible for which parts of the compositions one hears, and in this collaboration album, too it could be a rewarding game.

Clearly, there are solid sonic fingerprints from Baumann, the playful melodic motifs that punctuate the electronic soundscapes are unmistakably his - and make one think of his solo albums of yesteryear. Such motifs turn up in many places, from the aforementioned Road To Danakil to Dream 9 to Counting On Time (where not only the melodic pattern, but also the digital choir-like choice of synth patch is a direct pointer to e.g. Machines Of Desire).

The way in which Baumann & Haslinger can build effortless-sounding, fluid, and constantly evolving sonic ambiences is very apparent in the mentioned Counting On Time, and Long Now Icarus or Measure 3.

Something that starts as an almost ambient track can evolve into a playful, than animated track like 54_NOVO, with catchy melodic patterns, too.

The final track, Longing In Motion, is another example of something that evolves from the ambiences of vast cosmic spaces to a pulsating, then rather majestic, piece of electronic dreamscape. The forces that were unleashed in tracks like Dream 9 are held back here and gradually, subtly added to the discourse, with gentle pulsating patterns that make us feel firmly rooted in a Berlin School-style electronic Universe.

When it comes to the overall sound world of the album, a couple of aspects are worthy of highlighting.

First of all, it has a quite minimalist feel, in the sense that the sparseness of the arrangements might really stand out to some listeners.

This is not electronica with vast layers of sounds, everything is kept very distinctive and one really can very often count on one hand how many simultaneous elements are at play in the arrangements.

This creates an aesthetic where every detail stands out, as the very translucent and sparse arrangements do not want to, and cannot, mask or blur anything. The listener is not drowned in electronic showing-off of might, instead, one is allowed to contemplate often isolated sparse shimmers and specks of light in vast cosmic darkness.

One example is M-Tron Field, where often just one synth patch with just a few well-isolated distinct notes hover above a background pad (or not even that, just silence and vast reverberations). Every individual sound is allowed to take shape and float around, if it so wishes to, without being drowned in huge electronic orchestrations.

The other, more technical, aspect is the choices made for the depiction of rather astral spaces. Yes, there are some delays and phasing, however most often the task of suggesting vast sonic spaces goes to immense reverbs. Both percussive and melodic synth sounds can feel as they occupy a space only inhabited by some vast galaxies... and with such acoustic backdrop, the vintage leads (like the fiery solo in Measure 3) stand out even more and grab one's attention.

For an even more general and overall remark, there is an element of Neuland that is highly commendable even if someone's tastes or preconceptions might not actually match what one hears on this album.

Peter Baumann and Paul Haslinger, in a stellar collaboration like this and with the very special pedigree they have, could have chosen to produce a trendy, even perhaps safe, mainstream electronica album.

They haven't - and it is a positive.

It is an honest album, that is consistent with their individual styles and compositional preferences, as proven also by the recognisable musical and technological choices they made for this album.

In today's EM landscape it is refreshing to hear such individualist approach and risk taking instead of some drive to fit a successful-sounding pre-existing mould.