‘Easy to assemble, hard to take apart’. That’s the verdict of the press release on ‘Bestandteil’, a collaboration between FM Einheit and Hans-Joachim Irmler that deals in some powerful and often unsettling sonics. The duo tend to use their textures like musical clouds, wrapping the sharper sounds in great swathes of backing noise so that the listener feels surrounded. While this can be unnerving it can also be pretty exhilarating, as a track like ‘The Taking’ demonstrates with its warped orchestral stabs. ‘Brooks’ is a hypnotic listen in a different way, hanging on the same pitch for a good seven and a half minutes. Often they use these long held pitches with movement around them, or as in ‘M’ take on a more extravagant organ improvisation. Whichever way they slice it, ‘Bestandteil’ is never less than an absorbing listen.
4 out of 5
Reviewed by Ben Hogwood
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