Fennesz – "Bécs" new album April 2014

Looking forward to the Fennesz "oozing sobriety" press photo :)

Solo acoustic Fennesz? Sign me up.

Just one guy in a studio, making music, the way it used to be.

To me, Black Sea is his masterpiece. Thought he was overrated af until that dropped, and it's probably on my top 10 00's albums list. I hope this focus brings him back to that level textural immersion and pristine melodic beauty he sustained for that record.

Venice was my entry point and still fave. Endless Summer is good but a work with a particular flavor, and Black Sea is a smoothed out and extended version of Venice moments

I have a cd of Bécs that I value because I wanted to support a cool record store when I was traveling and they only had the listening station copy. They gave it to me for free with my purchases and it has a characteristic corner punch <3

His masterpiece is the "...Plays" single.

my music library Iittered with interpretational covers and I am going to have to say no. it’s interesting as a release but it seems very dismissive of excellent work to make that call

agreed, Plays is a certain peak of hype & moment but I don't think it holds up quite as well now. I started buying this stuff in the Hotel Parallel and Touch Records era and Plays was exciting because it showed a new direction forward, but I dig the Endless Summer/Venice/Black Sea trifecta way more

Plays? Come on... seriously put Black Sea on with some headphones and immerse. Each song is extremely visual, with the title track and Glide as absolute pinnacles of his sound, compositionally and texturally. Glide in particular is an amazing build up and tear down. Visually, I feel like I'm in some forest at night and some bright light or space ship arrives and shines its light on me only to fly away and leave me breathless and with a sense of awe. It's a record dying to be heard from beginning to end, and is his most consistent.

it's highly dependent on whether you like the king midas sound album, but the full-album rework by fennesz is pretty good. it's a lot less fenneszy, and could use a little stretching in some moments

So, new one... I was excited by the p4k "80's new wave" references but this is very much the continuation of Becs and Black Sea I would say - perhaps a bit too slow and abstract for my taste at this point.

Yeah, I'm not feeling this one, unfortunately (and I liked Black Sea) and I agree the 80s new wave references were a tad misleading

It isn't happening in bite-sized chunks - and abstract it certainly is

I thought it relocated Fennesz back to a context of Gas, Chain Reaction and Porter Ricks

When the glinting neon bliss arrives, as it does in the second halves of Rainfall and We Trigger the Sun, it is truly wonderful

Worth a relook

Yeah this is absolutely blowing me away right now. I don't think it's so abstract, I was struck by how immediate the appeal was. Vast and enfolding and gorgeous. Time to re-run the ambient albums poll.

aaaand today I find out a "concert extravaganza" for Agora is coming my way

ooh he's doing a festival near here!