LLOVESPELL: 2 NEUE ALBEN IM FEBRUAR

LLOVESPELL "MY CONSCIOUS IS NIL"

 

Rezension: PLACES (synthsequences.com)

Another artist from the Wrotycz Records label, Llovespell is a name associated with EM since his association with Hans Johm in the project Radio Eichenlaub in the early 2000's. Tinged of melancholy, the music of the German duo was then guided by the Dark Ambient style. Llovespell, a project by Stephan Spreer, left Radio Eichenlaub in 2002 to pursue a solo career. He then turned to a more dance genre but also more experimental with a slight link with an industrial ambience. Some 6 CDs and 2 cassettes later, Wrotycz Records offers us the last two tapes of Llovespell. We are talking here about 21 titles and an impressive musical mosaic with various genres which get intersect in a good frenzy EDM. Limited to 500 pressing edition, PLACES is a first rendezvous which features 2, and even 3, facets of Stephan Spreer.

Scale Me sets the tone with a lively and bouncy rhythm. It's a good and catchy EDM track decorated with good effects of percussion and of boorish voices gurgling among ghostly ululations. Adorned of sonic glitches and other psybient effects, Detachment goes for a good bipolar down-tempo. Here again, the percussions add to the charms whereas foggy synth pads explain the presence of this album on the Wrotycz Records label. Echo Run is more commercial with its fluid rhythm embellished with Afro-Caribbean xylophone percussion. Docile, The Lectrice reminds me of the good commercial hit from Altered Image. Four Maybe is more rough in its psychedelic-ambient industrial dance approach. The sound effects, and they are manifold, envelop a rhythm which leaps barely. More fluid, Magnet Sea surfs on synth waves in a rather ethereal EDM structure, while The Line joins a little the style of Scale Me. Outside does into an ambient dance genre with a nice sound texture where the synth and its circular sweeping dominates on a sonic flora teeming with its tones still as much sought after since that Scale Me has infiltrated between our ears. This first cassette, entitled One, to nest in PLACES ends with the 39 seconds of (Untitled) which presents a fauna of percussive elements and big effects of white noises in a structure without direction. With a good balance between dance music and percussion effects which attracts the curiosity of the ears, one tames One pretty well. On the other hand, Two proposes structures as rough as Four Maybe. The music is more into an experimental dance with a texture of modern psychedelic sounds and effects which roar much more than the rhythms. It requires a couple of plays, although a title like Asphalt and The Sea can make things easier. A 3rd E.P. was under construction, but it never saw the light of day. Llovespell has recovered titles entitled simply (Untitled). We still feel a sense of evolution in the approach of Stephan Spreer who favors a texture more Jazz on (Untitled 1) and (Untitled 2), whereas (Untitled 3) adopts a fascinating approach a la Zoolook, but in a more acoustic version. Pretty interesting!

One'll have guessed it; PLACES is a dance music album with a more experimental approach wrapped in the ambient sweetness of the Berliner style EM. The style of Llovespell offers a more ethereal psybient despite a superabundance, very seductive by the way, of much aesthetic sound effects since it's little used in the usual genre. It's a nice discovery which flows very well between the ears, at least mine's, and is available in Digipack format with 4 side panels. An album whcih should appeal to fans of EDM with a more experimental approach.

Rezension: A CONSTANT MURMUR (africanpaper.com)

Nicht brandneu, aber angesichts unserer halbherzigen Sommerpause immer noch aktuell ist eine neue Veröffentlichung von Llovespell. “A Constant Murmur” enthält eigens überarbeitete Versionen von Tracks aus unterschiedlichen Werkphasen, zudem Überarbeitungen Llovespells von Fjernlys- und Antlers Mulm-Stücken. Johannes Riedel a.k.a. Circular wiederum remixt Llovespells bzw llvsplls “Behind the Words” und als besondere Wegmarke gibt es eine gemeinsame Version des Klassikers “Winter 2″ mit den Japanern von Jack or Jive, die sich entsprechend stark von der ebenfalls enthaltenen selbstbearbeiteten Version unterscheidet.

Auf verquere Art eignet sich “A Constant Murmur” durchaus als Einstieg in die Welt des Projektes, denn es istvolelr Wegweiser in unterschiedliche Himmelsrichtungen der llovespell-Diskografie und darüber hinaus. Es präsentiert die Musik des Leipziger Duos von ihrer vielseitigen Art bzw in ihrem sehr heterogenen Potenzial, und so rangieren die Tracks in ihrer hier vorliegenden Gestalt von entspanntem Synthie-Ambien bis zu relativ vertrackter Elektronik mit z.T. fragmentierte Gesangsparts.Das Album erscheint als CDR und Download beim hauseigenen Symmetric Poetry-Label.

INTERVIEW

Stephan Spreer set up Llovespell in 2002. Nearly twenty years later the project has released an impressive number of productions, mainly released by  Sonderübertragung! The past few years Llovespell signed to Polish label Wrotycz Records. Stephan Spreer and singer Mandie K this year released their new opus “That Summer There Was No Honey”. The album is a pure sonic voyage mixing different influences from Minimal-Electro to Trip-Pop to Experimentsl, space-like atmospheres carried by low, resonating bass lines with half-spoken-like vocals by Mandie K on top. I got in touch with Stephan Spreer.  

Q: Llovespell has been set up nearly twenty years ago now. What have been the main points of satisfaction thus far and how do you analyze the evolution of the band over the years?

Stephan: Basically, it is always special to me/to us if Llovespell manages to gain public attention. Every record perceived by someone and every concert attendees enjoying the music is a highlight to me. It does not matter where the concert takes place: Leipzig, Moscow… wherever… it just touches me if people really listen to Llovespell.

Q: I’ve always experienced Llovespell as a very eclectic music project; it’s hard to define your music as one specific genre while I more get the impression the sound is a mix of different influences. Do you recognize this eclecticism and tell us a bit more about your ‘sound’?

Stephan: Llovespell is not versatile on purpose. It is much more a flow of enjoying dealing with different influences. Our music does not need to meet expectations of a certain genre. I’ve always been interested in music and different styles and I enjoy experimenting with different genres. It’s challenging to create an ‘out of the box’ sound and not just a generic product. Even though all our records sound slightly different, it seems that a specific ‘Llovespell sound’ can be detected in every single record since my preference for producing a certain synthetic sound hasn’t changed much over the years. And by the way, I still use most of the equipment I used right at the beginning of Llovespell.

Q: Tell us a bit more about the writing and production of the new opus “That Summer There Was No Honey”? What inspired you to write these songs and how did the collaboration happened –especially during the pandemic?

Stephan: Working on “That Summer There Was No Honey” started in 2018. Most of the songs on the album were already finished when the pandemic hit. I could take advantage of little distraction at that time to complete the album during Corona crisis. The process of writing went throughout the years 2018 and 2019.  As most of the Llovespell songs, the album contains everyday observations and sensations; sounds, lightings and impressions of the city colored by my own feelings, which I consider worth sharing with someone.

Q: When do you know a song/album is finished? Do you’ve specific criteria and/or references in the production of your music?

Stephan: An album or song is finished if I feel pleased and comfortable with the outcome. I mostly bother about the timbres and the arrangement. This works because I completely trust Andreas Wahnmann to create a musical sensation by mastering my mix.

Q: The title of the album is pretty intriguing, but what does it reflect? And can you tell us a bit more about the lyrical content of the work?

Stephan: Basically, I really like the ambiguity of the title which the listener may interpret individually. To me it’s about something missing. In good times, and summer is a good time to me, the heart yearns for something special. Something special, which isn’t necessary or vital or even crucial, but nevertheless yearned for. For the very first time, the words are not written by us, but poems from Ingeborg Bachmann, Mascha Kaleko and Rainer Maria Rilke. It is a range of words, which created a certain soundscape in my head. The words underline the mood of the album perfectly for me.

Q: I noticed you already released another album entitled “A Constant Murmur” featuring a selection of remixes and collaborations with other artists. How did you get the idea to release this work and what did you try to accomplish? What are the further plans?

Stephan: “A Constant Murmur” is a collection of already released songs. Some of the remixes can be found on the B-side of the tape version of the album “Logic Lust” and some derive from albums of e.g. antlers mulm, fjernlys and Architrav. My favorite remix is a collaboration with Jack Or Jive from an already sold out tape sampler. To me the remixes are a great overview over the first 10 years of Llovespell.

Of course, the need for that album could be questioned, but I just enjoyed sampling the songs. The audience shared my joy to have all the collaborations of the band history united on one album. At the moment, we are (as usual) working on a new album and are already excited to get it out there. For now, we would love to perform “That Summer There Was No Honey” live on stage and we are currently looking for the right location.

(side-line.com)

CASIA "LIGATURES"

 

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Rezension: FEUER WASSER STURM (side-line.com)

Background/Info: Casia is a project driven by Stephan Spreer (known from Lovespell, Sunday Strain, Antlers Mulm). “Feuer Wasser Sturm” is the debut album of the artist, released on CD by Wrotycz Records while the digital format is available by Symmetric Poetry.

Content: We’re visiting a rather abstract, cinematographic and ambient-like sound universe. You’ll rapidly notice the tracks have been composed with synthesizers, but Casia also uses samples and field recordings. The composition moves from crispy noises to astral sweeps to deep, vibrating sound treatments. You now get the sensation of pure reverie while other cuts reflect a darker ambient approach.

+ + + : What I like in this work is the unique approach; it’s ambient and even dark-ambient driven, but different than the ‘classic’ formats. Casia stands for a more delicate and sometimes even subtle work. The musician creates an intimate world, like the mirror of his inner world. So the work has something pretty visual, which makes me think of putting your head into a dark and unknown hole. You feel the danger, but can’t resist the temptation… I was impressed by tracks like “I Step Outside Myself” for its intimate feeling and “Transit” for its dark-ambient vibrations.

– – – : This work needs a visual content and that’s in a way what the artwork of the cover stands for, but I can imagine a deeper impact when joined with real visuals, a short film or even a theatre play. I’m missing a true climax to speak about a totally accomplished work.

Conclusion: This album is a nice surprise for (dark)-ambient lovers in search of something different and even a tiny atypical.

Best songs: “Transit”, “I Step Outside Myself”, “A New Forgetting (And A New Forgiveness)”, “The Bridge To You (And Back To Me)”.