Stephan Mathieu - Wurmloch Variationen
Ostensibly reworkings of Mathieu performing an 11-minute piano composition, this album ends up working more as an investigation of the recoding process itself. The pieces are built mostly out of hisses and clicks that found their way into the recording. Vary rarely is an actual strike of a key heard. I don’t mean to suggest by this it’s at all difficult to listen to, because it isn’t. The mood is soft and peaceful, in the hazily melancholic way typical of this sort of ambiance. Then, at the end, we get to hear the piece itself more or less unaltered, and it’s just right.
