tape: rideau

Reissue of the third album by Swedish trio Tape, originally released in 2005. First time on vinyl. On, Rideau, made their great leap forward. Released on Häpna, following two albums of pastoral folk meets electronica, Rideau saw the trio of Andreas and Johan Berthling, and Tomas Hallonsten, working with an outside producer, Marcus Schmickler (Pluramon). On Rideau, Tape's music opened out considerably, embracing traditional minimalism, and luscious melodicism. Now, seventeen years later, Rideau has a new home with Morr Music. Rideau sits neatly with Morr Music's catalog yet it feels contemporary, suggesting the creative discoveries made by the trio have ongoing resonance; their elliptical poetry echoes through recent music from the likes of Tara Clerkin Trio, and Tape's sometime collaborators, Tenniscoats. While they had previously recorded their albums in rural Sweden, for Rideau, the trio decamped to Schmickler's Piethopraxis Studio in Cologne. The creative space that Schmickler carved out for the group allowed them to explore this new material to its fullest. You can hear Schmickler's influence at an almost molecular level -- Tape had never sounded quite so graceful and assured with their compositions. Rideau represents a collective exhalation for Tape, with the trio exploring more involved, longer pieces, which situates them in yet broader musical contexts. There are clear connections with the history of minimalism, for example, via the repeating organ phrase of "Sunrefrain", and the insistent piano arpeggio of "A Spire", which builds into a Reich-ian dream song, with sensuous electronics and glinting vibraphone dappling abstract shapes across the song's stretched canvas. Reflecting on Tape's essence, Schmickler isolates their "uncompromised ethos, caring about small details." This echoes most radically through the twilight environment of "Long Lost Engine", which sets the listener adrift on impossibly radiant drones, while a gentle, almost Feldman-esque melody plays out over the song's surface. It's followed by the reissue's extra track, Japanese electronica quartet Minamo's remix of "Roulette", a connection that would lead to a Minamo/Tape collaborative album, Birds Of A Feather (2007). For now, though, here is the gorgeous, penumbral abstraction of Rideau, an album of whispers and clues, quiet moments and grand gestures, reintroduced to a welcoming world. Includes printed inner and download code; edition of 500.