Today, after having seen some rotation on Leftob, a new release on Petcord has finally seen the light of day: Slow Movements by the Austrian artist Fabio Keiner, a work that turns out to be difficult to classify:

It shares some characteristics with Drone, but clearly differs by its lack of inertia and repetition. An alternative approach may be to classify it as Dark Ambient, which again is conflicting with the abstract harmonies which rather bring up associations of crystalline space rather than misty vaults and feelings of distress. The treatment of space and dynamics in Slow Movements also hints at electroacoustic, as is the generative character of the music.

(Source: Release liner notes)

The work gains with repeated listening and interestingly even difficult to understand passages eventually resolve into more than listenable music. I suspect perhaps it is a bit like the eyes’ adjustment to darkness. In the beginning you do not see a lot but after a few minutes, a lot of contures and details start to turn up from the seemingly uniform mass.

There is an ambiguity concerning Slow Movements in that it both refers to interconnected units that define a whole (sometimes returning to previous patterns) and the infinity of variations that neither know a beginning nor an ending. And thus tracks are not remembered and recognised by phrases but instead by their character as a whole.

(Source: Release liner notes)

This is much like listening to a blackbird’s song: You cannot exactly determine a beginning or end, just a constant movement. However, you can immediately identify its characteristics, despite the fact that there is constant variation in its phrases.

The cover art was another cooperation between Marco Cervellin (of Wacky Southern Current fame) and me. The initial idea was a sequence of butterfly movements, which quickly inspired me to build the remaining scenery around it. Some time was spent on improving details and applying requested changes, until both we and Fabio Keiner were satisfied with the result.