Jinx by Kammerflimmer Kollektief

Whispering, a laid back pop rhythm and something that sounds like an overwound gramophone – thus begins "Jinx", the new album by the Kammerflimmer Kollektief. Recorded by Tobias Levin at Electric Avenue Studio, it is their sixth longplayer.

This band is still a "collective", although within the last years and extensive touring through Europe, a group of three core members emerged from the original line-up: Thomas Weber (guitar, electronics, piano), Heike Aumüller (harmonium, vocals, synthesizer, percussion) and Johannes Frisch (double bass and percussion).

The eight songs on "Jinx" leave the wide-screen cinemascope soundscapes of the previous albums behind. With their serenity, these songs sound almost like a sediment of the band's earlier approach. This becomes evident in a track like "Nest" (which is reminiscent of the folk-jazz-approach of early Pentangle albums), or the beautifully minimalist yet very touching country-epic "Live At The Cactus Tree Motel".

Faced with this music, the usual groping for stylistic comparisons and genre attributions appears more helpless than ever. This is mainly due to the focused use of instrumental improvisation on this album. In their dialogue with the sound impulse, the musicians re-endow data folk with a body and electronic music with its metaphysics. This becomes evident in both the title track and in "Both Eyes Tight Shut", where in a repetitive swing Heike Aumüller's voice persistently fishes half-words from the vortex of sound particles.

In "Gammler, Zen & Hohe Berge", a tiny echo from the beat on a small wood block which is electronically slowed down, dies away. Time drips through the spheres, quietly. This is not an escape into esotericism but rather the attempt at reflection and clarification, a catharsis somewhere between a constructed reality and karma.

Jinx – the mythological bird that heralds bad luck - comes to you when you return from the quest for happiness in the computer game world of virtual identities. With "Jinx", the Kammerflimmer Kollektief has created a touching soundtrack for these moments – when you leave the simulated wonderworld of commerce like "Second Life", when you log off your atavar and suddenly find yourself confronted with the disdainful universality of your own thinking.



Kammerflimmer Kollektief
The Kammerflimmer Kollektief plays music, which should not be written down, for it would scorch the paper. The project, whose music meanders between precision and freedom, has been founded in 1996 by Thomas Weber.

Up to now, the Kollektief has released eight albums in all sorts of line-ups. Live performances all over the world are realized as a trio (with Heike Aumüller and Johannes Frisch).

www.kammerflimmer.com

Founded in 1998 by DJ, musician and journalist Markus Detmer, Staubgold is an acknowledged and acclaimed brand for experimental and electronic music from around the world.

Its roster can boast internationally known names like Vivien Goldman, The Flying Lizards, Faust, To Rococo Rot, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Ekkehard Ehlers and Rafael Toral.

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