Martin Herterich - recordings 070401-070521 (2007, Hwem)

"Silent Fields" (2009, Kesh) has been an important recent musical discovery so the exploration of his back catalog is the next step.

Martin explained that on this record, he wanted to explore "the possibilities of the grand piano as a droning instrument, by pitching, timestretching, processing piano samples" and adding field recordings.

While less haunted than "Silent Fields", this EP is still very engaging, melancholic, meditative, atmospheric and subtle, floating somewhere between William Basinski and Yuichiro Fujimoto.

"The Harbour In Rain (Morning)" sounds indeed like promised, morning walk under rain , with the distants sounds of sea, harbour and seabirds. Except some piano sounds, we are close to the "Storm" album realized by Chris Watson and BJ Nilsen.

"Slow Dance" is much more typical, graceful reverberated piano notes with waves of drones, reverberation and muted snowy field recordings in the background. Also a lack of originality with the piano of "The Harbour In Rain (Evening)" which seems to go nowhere, stuck with the sound of rain falling at night.

The last track, "Asleep/Awake" is the longest and the more ambitious one. Martin Herterich is heading there for other direction, this is much more introspective and minimal, like a slow contemplation of  a vast landscape in the morning, where snow is falling slowly, motionless, yes cinematic with the movement of the eye and the blurry effect of snowflakes.

http://www.hwem.net/

http://www.archive.org/details/hwemnet006

http://www.myspace.com/martinherterich