sascha funke: lotos land

Lotos Land, the third solo album from German producer Sascha Funke, on Tokyo's Endless Flight. Funke embraces fresh sound territories without forgetting his past. With two solo albums on Ellen Alien's BPitch Control label under his wings, Funke knows what it means to write and dramatize an album. All tracks on Lotos Land are well selected. Together they built a bewitching story arc. With some singing help from the Scottish crooner David Wilson, voice of the Glasgow based melancholic dance sensation Junto Club and the Tel Aviv born musician Autarkic, exotic but yet perfect sing-along melodies partly enthrall the listeners, too. And even if Sascha Funke has been a part of the club culture since the nineties, his musical memory and sensibility goes way back before the early techno and house eruptions. For his new works, which were all produced in Berlin during 2016, he removed the dogma of functionality and shifted into a riskier, more open terrain, which does not offer mainly club sensations. Funke explains: "I think I would not have made such a diverse album without the time with Saschienne. Before Saschienne, I mainly worked sample-based and produced exclusively at the computer. By working with Julienne as Saschienne, I discovered my love for the instrument. 'Playing' with the different synths is for me the greatest progress and ultimately also the best possible form of expression for my music." For his new tracks he used several kinds of gear; from a Korg ARP Odyssey to a Dave Smith Prophet 8, Moog Voyager, Solina String keyboard, or a Yamaha Pacifica guitar, stylistically his new orchestra leads him to a mesmerizing meltdown of trance, techno, synth-wave, post-punk, and ambient particles. Funke points his finger to the emotional landscape of Lotos Land, which delivers enchanted atmospheres, sensible stomping grounds, funky twisted spheres, and tragically hip psychedelic zones. At large there is an unmistakable strong UK influence -- be it new wave, pop, or early dance and techno stuff. Sometimes the bass rolls like in a Cure song, then dreamy synth sceneries arise to stick in the mind. Also features Emily Evans. Cover art by Mule Musiq and Endless Flight Hamburg-based home illustrator Stefan Marx. It features a Marx-styled interpretation of a 1901 illustration by the British painter William Edward Frank Britten, that was made to the poem The Lotos-eaters, written by the poet Alfred Tennyson.