E LUXO SO

This is a slow and fairly minimalist atmospheric instrumental album. The tracks are all rhythmic although there are no drums; sometimes percussive electronic sounds are used, and sometimes the rhythm is carried by repeated motifs of guitar or piano or sometimes electronic keyboard. The music is all quite harmonic and muted and mostly in melancholic minor. It's truly "post rock" in the sense that the band creates soundscapes rather than songs, but they do it in a rather warm and accessible way. There is this fun idea to get the song names from basically splitting up the credits into six parts, with which I can sympathise, knowing very well the struggle to name instrumentals that are not meant to have a meaning that would be expressible in words. The band underlines in this way the orientation toward atmosphere instead of song structure. It's the whole, not the parts, that counts. What I like about this album is that regarding the arrangements and the use of the instruments there is quite a bit of variation between the tracks. The music is certainly good for a melancholic mood and for meditative listening. Personally I have to say that for this kind of music I prefer a bit more mystery and a bit less reliance on conventional harmonies without all too fascinating ideas or melodies; the album is good at what it tries to be, but it doesn't do too much magic for me.