amrsen jules: beautyfear

With Beautyfear on Oktaf Records, German electronic musician Marsen Jules delivers one of his most outstanding albums so far. Mastered by no one else than 12K label-boss Taylor Deupree and with a cover picture taken by the highly-acclaimed photographer Erik Madigan Heck from NYC, the best conditions are laid for a lasting experience of abstract musical poetry and touching soundscapeism. Jules has never been this dense, subtle and fragile before. All 12 tracks on Beautyfear were created during a week stay in a theater workspace on one of the hills of Lisbon. The panoramic view over the dusty city in Spring seemed to have been the perfect surrounding for these cloudy soundscapes, which at some points remind of Angelo Badalamenti's work for David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. "It's an album on the fragility of beauty," Jules describes briefly -- music that can neither be described as ambient music or experimental sound art, but more likely delivers a poetic approach to music and sound itself. With Beautyfear, Marsen Jules makes a great start into 2014 along with the already announced cooperation with Swedish filmmaker Anders Weberg and an upcoming release of his works from a residence at the legendary GRM studios in Paris, one should definitely keep an eye on what is coming next.