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Remy — The Other Side
(Bandcamp Deserted Island Discs DIM-01, 2020, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2021-04-28

The Other Side Cover art

Remy Stroomer has been plying his trade since the late 90s — we first heard his work on the Groove Unlimited release The Art of Imagination in 2000; the years since have produced no less that two dozen releases, the most recent we covered was the twentieth anniversary box set of his Exhibition of Dreams album, a two disc set that included two additional CDs (one out-takes, one live) for a total of four, issued in a limited edition of 50 copies. With The Other Side Stroomer explores alternate sides of every story, what we don’t know and will never be able to understand; the four long sequenced synth tracks correspond to four album sides (although to date it's only been released as a CD), each an exploration into different aspects of his Berlin school style, sometimes fused with percussives, other times captivated by floating washes of tonal color, the power and depth of the constructions makes for an impressive dreamscape. Opening the door with “A Different View,” the busy synth beats shift around effortlessly creating a hypnotic groove where the imagination is the only limit, brushing the sky with soft floating iridescence all across its brief thirteen minute duration. On the twenty-three minute “Everything Is Distraction,” we build slowly with some spoken words over the background sound of a fire, though before long the piece builds into a beautiful classical dreamworld joined by percussionist Bas Broekhuis, just before the sequences get busy around the four minute mark. From there Broekhuis continues to add interesting drum textures and patterns over the sequences for the balance of the piece’s duration. Making a slow ascension out of a mysterious starry nightworld, “The Perfect Dream” paints sparkles of beautiful colors and shadows as it builds with eloquence, even featuring some acoustic guitar in the last few minutes before the fade. “Lost in Reality” is probably the most unusual piece of the four, climbing slowly as it builds on beautiful repeating synth textures as short vocal blasts carry it forward. It’s also the only piece here with lyrics, written by vocalists Judith Wesselius and Joost Verhagen, although that aspect doesn’t appear until nearly the end of its 23 minute duration. Taken as a whole, the four long cuts of The Other Side make for a fertile exploration of new electronic soundworlds.

Filed under: New releases, 2020 releases

Related artist(s): Remy Stroomer

More info
http://remystroomer.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side

 

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