driftmachine: nocturnes

Announcing the onset of night, Driftmachine - a Berlin-based duo comprised of Andreas Gerth ( Tied & Tickled Trio) and Florian Zimmer ( Saroos) - have created Nocturnes, a psychoactive, dream-inducing stimulant of sorts: Evoking and maintaining a trancelike state, the duo's six-part journey into the dark was originally inspired by reading The Rest is Noise and listening to the music discussed in Alex Ross' seminal book. The resulting soundscapes, written and recorded since 2012, redefine the lines between insomnia and slumber, between wraithlike dub grooves gone awry, the dancing flicker of a slack-joint bedside lamp, and eerie electronics. With its meticulously displaced details and intricate harmony layers, Nocturnes also evokes the electronic avant-garde of the mid-70s, think Cluster during the band's Zuckerzeit era. Nocturnes keeps the balance between intense, dramatic metrics and rather complex, modulated melodies