PLASMA

I was very much on the fence about picking this one up not being a fan in general of minimalistic music. But the Zeuhl tags and wordless vocals kept pulling me back until I finally took the plunge. This is a five piece from Switzerland with male and female vocals, drums, bass and piano. Ramon Oliveres the drummer leads the way here being the main composer and he produced this album. Nik Bartsch is the executive producer here and certainly he would have been an influence being also from Switzerland and carving out a career making minimalistic music. I have some of his "Ronin" records.

In my opinion the Zeuhl influence is barley there and I wish they used an electric bass instead of acoustic but I get that they are trying to get a certain sound here. The keyboardist is a boss I'll say that and vocalist Anne Hirsch is my favourite thing about this record. I understand that each musician went through their parts changing and adjusting before the final results were given. Attention to detail. The music is constantly moving and evolving. In fact for this style I'm surprised that they kept my attention throughout.

One of the reasons I don't love this album is the opener "Tritium" and it's a fine composition but Anne's vocals at times remind me of a group that I can't put my finger on but it's not a good thing. Of the five tracks two really stand out including track two "Isblink" which just clicks with me. I like the rhythm section maybe the most here and it's mid-paced for the most part. My favourite though is the closer "Altaelva" where I feel some actual emotion listening to a minimalistic record! What? Check it out after 4 minutes. Love that instrumental sound a minute later as it continues to change as all these tracks do. Great finish to the song and album.

A very solid 4 stars for this 2022 release and I like this better than the Nik Bartsch stuff I own.