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Abstrakt Lake — Abstrakt Lake
(Bandcamp no#, 2024, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-11-03

Abstrakt Lake Cover art

Abstrakt Lake is the instrumental project of Lithuanian expat Balthazar Klimt, who now lives in France. For ten years or so he has been involved with projects encompassing a number of different styles, from electronics to progressive rock to metal to world music. Abstrakt Lake reflects Klimt’s growing interest in experimental sounds and field recordings; the early demos were very noisy and chaotic, but with the eventual addition of vintage synths and retro drum machines, his work took a turn toward more rhythmic, organic, melodic, and accessible sounds. This self-titled document is Abstrakt Lake’s debut release, and is pretty much Klimt composing and playing all of the instruments, with the exception of Ukranian cellist Artem Litovchenko playing on one track (“Ežeras”) and production duties handled by Vadik Squarez. The opening salvo is “Dubrovnik's Clove,” a mix of dark and moody electronics and water sounds combined with a steady heavy pulse that slowly morphs into a soaring melodic piece backed by drum programs, a superb introduction for all that follows, although with “The Pond Below” things quickly get more experimental, ushering in thick layers of colorful ambient fog punctuated by interesting percussives; apparently this is the album’s single, and there is a video for it out there on Youtube. “On Stilts” is a succinct piece with an odd rhythmic beat and almost choral synth textures, while “Via Fundetae” offers a dark and stirring entrance followed by an insistent drum sequence with gliding synth textures reminiscent of Gary Numan. Following all this is the sprawling fifteen-minute four-part closer “Road to Lapland,” probably the most experimental piece of the bunch, certainly the most engaging; while I’m generally not a big fan of drum programs, throughout the six tracks Klimt handles the job masterfully, and the combination of expressive layered synth textures and the interesting use of found sounds (especially on the lengthy closer) goes far to make Abstrakt Lake a powerful debut and a promising project for future endeavors.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Abstrakt Lake (Balthazar Klimt)

More info
http://abstraktlake.bandcamp.com/album/abstrakt-lake

 

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