ZWISCHEN DEN ORTEN

Kante's first album is in my view the only one that earns the post rock genre tag without reservations. Later they went off in rather different directions, even though still holding on to a somewhat understated relaxed approach.

Although the opener and last track are the only true instrumentals, there isn't much singing also elsewhere, and the focus is on the atmosphere and the flow of the music. The arrangements are much sparser than on later Kante albums with the core members Peter Thiessen, Sebastian Krane, and Andreas Vogel playing pretty much everything as far as I know (guitar, keyboards, drums, bass, some percussion, and vocals that is), except a very short spoken word guest appearance. The music is mostly very transparent and minimalist. As often with post rock, there are hardly any standard song structures, and the focus is on teamwork rather than individual instrumental performances or the singing. Harmonically, some parts are pretty interesting with things hanging atmospherically in the balance. We get very few notes in some places making it unclear and potentially interesting where things will go, and sometimes they go nowhere. There is more suspense than resolution, although they can do calm and nice occasionally.

There are also some dynamic parts with nice rhythmic ideas, occasionally odd time signatures, and a fascinating rhythmic interplay between the musicians that becomes more effective in contrast to the generally relaxed mood and straight playing on the album. Note particularly "Entfernt", the most innovative track in terms of rhythm, contrasts, and also harmonies, and the one that first stuck with me.

Different from later albums, this one has a very much down to earth production that is transparent and fine for the music; high production values became more important for them later. I've got to say though that at least the drumming sounds better here than on later albums where the drummer's role was more relegated to the background. Here he contributes stronger to the overall dynamics.

It took me quite some time to get into this album. For years I found it clearly weaker than Kante's later instrumentally and melodically richer work, as initially I didn't find much memorable on this album. However over the years I came to enjoy this one more and more, and now I play it rather regularly, and I'd go up to say 3.8 stars rounded to four. This is proper post rock, and pretty unique and well conceived within that genre. You may think it doesn't give you that much to cling to, but its mood may still get you eventually, and I love the casual and understated way how they get some strangeness and innovation in through the backdoor.