Steve Baltes, Harald Grosskopf, Axel Manrico Heilhecker - Viermaldrei

1. Blue Lake (19:48) 2. Crazy Snake (7:30) 3. White Deer Skin Dance (14:24) 4. The Long Walk (12:43)

Total Running Time: 54:25

Modern life in the city is a curious affair. Red lights flicker and go at night, cars fly by in a constant flux of metallic whirring, concealed tribal unconsciousness comes out disguised in nightclubs, neon lights cast their glowing auras on the hectic youth that swarms the streets, and the metallic skeleton of the metropolis extends itself throughout the world with a sense of conceited chic that smirks ironically at its inhabitants. What these residents of industrial life don't realize, however, is that there is a rhythm and an ambience that has been crafted along with the expansion ever since the seventies, and which has manically branched out in myriad forms of better-known electronic music, all the way from techno to lounge to trip-hop to jungle to ambient. However, the soundtrack of urban nightlife in the modern capitals of the world, and just like the nature of the grand sphere itself ranging from the mediocre to the brilliant, originated largely from the electronic progressive rock of acts such as Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Ash Ra Tempel, and Ashra; a fact that is still the pride of the knowledgeable.

Now take Ashra alumni Steve Baltes and Harald Grosskopf, and add guitarist Axel Manrico Heilhecker, who will bring his very own sonic experiments to the fold by means of deliciously timed guitar embellishments, and you have a statistically excellent chance of bringing the electronic soundtrack of night to its most lively ecstasy. Enticing samples, electronic whiplashes, techno beats, an implicit sense of erotica, and varying series of moods and themes will all be introduced into the sequenced pattern of modern flow of consciousness, amalgamated into layers of imposing sound, and then painstakingly separated as the magic vanishes into the expectant skin. Dance beats will give the experience a nature immanent to lush satin, and then withdraw to regain a cosmic sense of modernity that echoes the vibrant streets outside. Samples and atmospheres will hypnotize the listener with a repetitiveness that nevertheless allows for gradual development. Manuel Göttsching's vague aura will accompany the compositions in a paternal gesture, without infringing upon the original character of the union, and Viermaldrei will grace the pantheon of progressive electronic music with atmospheric spirit.

Withdrawing from the more contemplative nature of the vast majority of progressive electronic rock's brightest exponents, Baltes, Grosskopf, and Heilhecker open a direct passageway into the nightlife of Germany; one that is vibrant with color, light, and a sense of modern adventure. "Crazy Snake" and "The Long Walk" are covered with dance club sweat, dripping an essence that recalls smoke-filled rooms in which alcohol and other substances flow freely and the senses are brought into a state of drunken continuity. "Blue Lake" becomes a hybrid in which the essence of discotheques intermingles with intimate warmth while rhythms become an quintessential voyage through the moods, and "The Long Walk" becomes a sonic experiment in which cold pseudoparanoiac sparseness evolves slowly into a splashing cascade of guitar notes. Viermaldrei crosses the borders between all sorts of electronic whimsies, and indeed forsakes its progressive nature at times in benefit of a more organic and orgiastic essence, but the rules of the night are different and evolving, and their soundtrack, as engaging and enthralling as it is, could not have been any different.

-by Marcelo Silveyra

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