Vertical Ascent - EP

Album Review

Sovereign dub techno producer Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound) aligns with Max Loderbauer (Sun Electric, nsi.) and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay, Luomo), two of the most well-regarded figures in electronic music. The three make a slight diversion from the expected, forming a perfectly calibrated machine — one in which European techno subsumes Latin, African, and Jamaican sources — made for improvisation and live performance. Whether immersed in weightless locomotive propulsion or hanging in suspension, these four tracks, modestly titled "Pattern 1," "Pattern 2," "Pattern 3," and "Pattern 4," make for an alternately gliding and hovering massage for the brain. Percussionist Ripatti, trained as a jazz drummer, anchors the pieces with an assortment of ricocheting and clattering handmade instruments — wooden, metallic, even water-filled — that create an oddly soothing tension when matched with von Oswald and Loderbauer's synthesizer sequences, drones, and treatments. A gorgeous, succinct set that can be slotted between Weather Report's 1971 debut and Ricardo Villalobos' Thé au Harem d'Archimède.