LINDSTRØM: Where You Go I Go Too (Smalltown Supersound)

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Posted on Aug 13th 2008 12:38 am

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Lindstrøm: Where You Go I Go Too

LINDSTRØM
Where You Go I Go Too
STS153CD
Smalltown Supersound/Feedility 2008
03 Tracks. 55mins06secs

Hans-Peter Lindstrøm is pictured with an ear-to-ear grin on the cover of his first proper album, and on the strength of it, he has every reason to considering he has just produced the most ecstatic, uplifting and bloody perfect electronic record in years. End of.

Lindstrøm has been making serious waves all the way down from his native Norway to the coolest dance floors in Europe and beyond for some time now with his highly personal take on classic disco, fed on big dollops of Giorgio Moroder and Cerrone and seasoned with warm analogue electronics a la Ash Ra Tempel/Klaus Schulze. Lindstrøm’s first foray into the music scene dates back to 2003, and since, he has released a number of EPs, which were compiled into an album, It’s A Feedelity Affair, in 2006, an album with Prins Thomas in 2005, and has also been spotted remixing anyone from LCD Soundsystem to The Killers.

With Where You Go I Go Too, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm chose a very different path to the one he has graced until now. While his trademark electronic sound more than ever forms the backbone of this record, he has opted here to develop his tracks much beyond what any twelve inch allows and created a magical journey which stretches over just under an hour, with the title track clocking at almost thirty minutes alone. In fact, Where You Go is haunted by the ghosts of Cerrone’s seminal 1977 third album Supernature and Manuel Göttsching’s 1973 Inventions For Electric Guitar and 1984 monumental E2-E4. Adopting a format that has been commonly used by Göttsching or Klaus Schulze over the years, Lindstrøm places his three tracks so there is a continuous flow of music and sound throughout the album. More than simply fading each track into the next, the pieces actually feels as they are intricately linked. Soundscapes spill over and the pace and overall mood remain pretty constant throughout.

From the initial calm brushes of synthetic soundwaves and reversed guitar which linger over the first few minutes of the opening track rises a highly polished sequencer feast which remains at the heart of the piece for pretty much its all length. Over it, Lindstrøm applies occasional electronic riffs which progress in smooth plateaux while an arpeggio develops in the background. Around the seventeen minute mark, the track reaches a clearing where the beat breaks for a few minutes to reveal rich atmospheric sonic layers. Interestingly, it is at this point that the soundscape is at its most abundant, and when Lindstrøm returns to the fully patterned sequences of earlier, he does so with much more bravado.

Where You Go slips almost imperceptibly into Grand Ideas, the shortest of the three compositions, their boundaries would be totally none existent if it wasn’t for the rhythmic canvas of the former piece progressively fizzling out into nothingness. Grand Ideas contrast with its predecessor by kicking much sooner into place and setting out its overall remit pretty much from the start. After a burst of reversed analogue electronics, the beat settles the score, left bare at first but soon surrounded by increasingly more overwhelming layers of sounds, including what sounds like a choir at one point. The sixteen minute epic The Long Way Home, which concludes, is another journey through blissful electronic sequenced textures, but it opens with a looped formation very reminiscent of Manuel Göttsching’s guitar patterns. After a first section, Lindstrøm strips his piece almost to the bone, only leaving a distant clatter to fill the space for a moment, then progressively builds up momentum again until a crystal-clear melody provides a lasting rush of energy and gets the piece back on track.

Lindstrøm set out to create something fresh and unique and it is very much what he has achieved with Where You Go I Go Too. No content of producing one of the most unashamedly electronic records in years, he has managed to capture the essence of electronic music as it was made over thirty years ago while still sounding utterly futuristic. Far from being overwhelming, his dense layering of sounds and his overall vision makes this record one of the most exhilarating offering you’re likely to hear in a very long time.

5/5

Lindstrøm/Feedelity | Smalltown Supersound
Buy: CD

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2 Responses to “LINDSTRØM: Where You Go I Go Too (Smalltown Supersound)”

  1. […] Lindstrøm has already a couple of albums under his belt, including his seminal debut solo album, Where You Go I Go Too, released a couple of years ago, Prins Thomas has so far shied away from making the transition […]

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