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Estompen — Trend des Universums
((Not on label) no#, 2021, CD)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2021-08-11

Trend des Universums Cover art Matthias Schrön, AKA Estompen, has released his third album of experimental music, Trend des Universums. Estompen’s approach is to feed his rock music through digital devices and software algorithms and record the peculiarities and harmonic interactions. He feeds the output to different channels. For tracks 1 and 2, Estompen played his guitar and drum set as evenly as possible, repeating a few tones, and sending it through a Boss GT-10 plus Auto-Riff and Pitchshifter. The GT-10 transposes octaves on its own. The result being that track 1 reminded me of the 80s cassette culture experimentation, similar to Rieg’s Source. Track 2 features interacting sequences and noisy chords, sounding a bit like Anna Själv Tredje’s Tussilago Fanfara. On track three, “Loopmash,” Estompen feeds his guitar, bass, and drums through the Steinberg LoopMash app. This is a buzzy, noisy, and slow piece that morphs into rock. Track 4, or “Estompe 113,” feeds three guitars, bass, and three drum tracks through a Korg Electribe S mk II Groovebox and the Time-slice app. The first 20 bars are unprocessed, sounding like complex King Crimson-influenced RIO, then as the devices kick in, the track morphs into scraping guitar chords. And the closing track, “Estompe 110 Reaktor,” is the result of sending a guitar through the NI Reaktor app, sounding much like “Free-Form Guitar” from Chicago’s debut album, though much more distorted, abrasive, and nerve-wracking. And unfortunately this goes on for nearly 11 minutes. Someone should have told him to stop! Overall an interesting album and experimentation, but only for the brave soul.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Estompen (Matthias Schrön)

 

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