Genre/Influences: Experimental, electro-jazz, abstract.

Background/Info: Samuel Rohrer is an artist who doesn’t really ring a bell to me. This Swiss artist however is a recognized musician and producer mainly dealing with jazzy experiments. He already released an impressive number of productions, toured all over the world and got involved in multiple side-projects. I also discovered that Samuel Rohrer also is member of Ambiq (which I got the opportunity to discover 2 years ago now).

Content: Samuel Rohrer is a jazz drummer and that’s for sure an element, which is easy recognizable on this album. Rohrer is playing the drums, but with different electronics. It instantly creates a pure experimental- and even abstract style. I was not surprised to learn that the artist is known for his improvisation work.

Samuel Rohrer gets you imprisoned in a dense sonic web of repetitive loops and abstract electronics. Some passages are a bit soundtrack-wise while I also noticed a somewhat Latino-like inspired cut.

+ + + : Samuel Rohrer is an artist you’re either going to like or not. There’s no way in between and that’s an aspect I always have loved with musicians. There’s a strong avant-garde and even visionary-like element running through his work. He makes no compromises and only seems to exorcise his very own sonic demons, creating a very own sound universe.

– – – : The experimental side of this work is really hard to grasp. You really need several listening before possibly seizing the sound of this artist. I’ve to admit it’s not my cup of tea and got especially bored by the long-duration pieces.

Conclusion: Samuel Rohrer is an artist who’ll only please experienced listeners. You can call it jazz, but I think it’s mainly a real minimal-like sound experiment from an ‘alien’ producer. This might be the sound from the further generations!

Best songs: “Sunclue”.

Rate: (5).

Band: www.samuelrohrer.com / www.facebook.com/samuelrohrer.arjunamusic

Label: www.arjunamusic.com / www.facebook.com/arjunamusic.label

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Experimental, abstract, cinematographic.

Background/Info: Ambiq is a trio featuring Max Loderbauer, Claudio Puntin and Samuel Rohrer who are artists that are all involved in jazz and experimentalism.

Content: It’s not that easy to classify the sound of Ambiq as any particular genre. It sounds like a pure experimental outburst where electronic manipulations and real instruments like clarinet and percussion have been merged together. It starts by sounding a bit exotic and then transforms into psychedelic.

Some of the last cuts are more into a kind of spooky, cinematographic approach although it remains pretty abstract.

+ + + : Ambiq clearly composes a very own sound and style, which will appeal to lovers of experimental music.

– – – : It’s not exactly the most accessible release and I’m missing some coherence between the songs.

Conclusion: Ambiq might be seen as a kind of jazz experiment for future generations, but it remains first of all pretty abstract and hard to grasp.

Best songs: “Meta”.

Rate: (DP:5)DP.

Label: www.arjunamusic.com / www.facebook.com/arjunamusic.label

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com