Review: Weites Luftmeer - Siebenunddreißigachtundvierzig

I've been looking forward to this release since Tonzonen announced it way back...I stumbled upon Weites Luftmeer a couple of years back after hearing their wonderful 'Emergency Airlock System' track and have been assiduously following and listening since. The Munich based husband and wife duo (Jochen Zindikus and Kim Dalberg-Zindikus) play an entrancing mix of psychedelic, shoegaze and krautrock and the new album, 'Siebenunddreißigachtundvierzig', (which Google translate reliably informs me is '3748', and so henceforth will be referred to as that!) is just that - a seamless melding of styles that are artfully combined to produce something of beauty and power.

'Isosceles' starts proceedings at a fair lick and immediately we are drawn into the fray...chiming, distorted guitars, throbbing bass and crashing drums all combine to produce something that has the echo-laden sensibilities of shoegaze but the distorted beauty of contemporary psych. 'Buoyancy' opens with some beautifully delicate guitar that chimes away over a backdrop of heavy fuzz that sounds like a distant ocean. As the track progresses some drones are added and everything comes together to produce a hazy, almost ambient, track. At the five minute mark the haze dissipates leaving the crystal clear guitar but still backed the wall of heavy fuzz. 'Trail Of Thoughts' is another track of sublime beauty and sees the duo adopt more of a shoegazing krautrock approach...dense layers of fuzz and some solid drumming that gets more and more hectic before everything slows down and morphs into some ace kosmische...the rich washes of synth are redolent of Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze. Yet again everything picks up and becomes a krautrock work-out of the highest quality....the track is eleven minutes of bliss! 'Oxykotin' is a bluster of delay and reverb...the guitars are fuzzy to the max and the track becomes an acid jam worthy of the likes of Sula Bassana...the press notes say 'Play Loud'...I did and boy, is this some powerful stuff!

It's always the way when you are looking forward to a release..that underlying fear that it will not match your expectations...but '3748' was worth the wait and anticipation. The seamless mixing of psych, krautrock and shoegaze produces moments of beauty that intersperse passages of power and fuzz...it's one of those albums that keeps on giving. The other pleasing thing is that sees Tonzonen extend their run of fine, fine releases; it's proving itself to be a label of taste and distinction, and long may that continue. '3748' is available on vinyl (limited to 500, 200 black & 300 magenta - 180g with gatefold cover and download code) from Tonzonen and as a download/stream from the Weites Luftmeer Bandcamp page here (while you are there, I urge you to check out their earlier material!)