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Net Feature/ N.Strahl.N & Pythagora: "Shift Coordinate Points"

  Tobias

Industrial, Dark Ambient, Drones, Soundscapes, associative collages, experimental electronics – there is a common potential between these styles, which mostly remains untapped for either aesthetical, philosophical or simply trivial reasons: Regardless of the mutual intersections, balancing the poles requires great sensitivity and an extraordinary overview in terms of arrangement. On „Shift Coordinate Points“, N.Strahl.N and Pythagora have attempted bridging the devide on an ambitious internet collaboration.

On seven tracks, mostly comforably exceding the ten-minute mark, the duo propells their music into spheres of exciting virginity: The intestines of sinister, alien nebulas glow with deformed, delayed and dehumanised spoken word samples rotating around an axis of spider-legged tonal threads in a wondrous galaxy of vast dimensions. Cloaked underneath, drilling frequencies search for melody and concretisation, while the other elements overlap into cloths of confusing complexity.

Even though the result of this effort could not necessarily have been predicted in advance, a little reasearch into the two projects involved demonstrates their inherent demand of rising above what could usually be expected from them: N.Strahl.N's Mario Löhr has reconsiled the brickolage-technique and distorted timbres of the industrial scene with the organic algorithms of modern electronica, while Pythagora's list of influences is mainly made up of artists who have continously pushed the envelope: Steve Roach, Andrew Liles, Nurse With Wound.

Even though each track contained here displays the same will to never stay in one spot for too long and to see the pieces as works in progress, as fixed as they may be at the end of the compositional process, opener „Nova-Ofen (Extrem Kleine Partikel)“ may be the most obvious example of this ideal: Going from splintered analog stabs and angry sinewave attacks, it gradually evolves into an atmospheric ambient portal full of haunting voices and bizarre, bubbling microtonal dots.

Because of its perpetual morphings, „Shift Coordinate Points“ is both demanding and addictive, giving its audience the impression of whitnessing an entire universe being born from a vacuum. There is neither an official press release, nor any kind of banale background information to be found anywhere, which suits a release as absolute and uninterested in pleasing as this one. N.Strahl.N and Pythagora have tapped the powerful potential of a plethora of genres – once that's been accomplished, the music can speak for itself.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: N.Strahl.N
Homepage: Pythagora
Homepage: Completely Gone Recordings