The press materials for Aussteiger’s debut full length tell a story of a dissatisfied traveller retreating to the havens of nature and achieving musical and spiritual enlightenment. Upon returning to civilization and adorned in a mystical aura of gold, he set out to soothe the ills of the world with Dub Disco, an adventurous imprint run alongside Serj Nosé that is responsible for some truly great music, including the tropical melancholia of “Balearic Cosmos” from Dub Disco presents Thorsten Lee Broda & Aussteiger, the ultra smooth atmospheres of S&W’s “Cashmere Green,” and the entire psychedelic wonderland that is Dub Disco presents Aporia + Remixes. And now Aussteiger’s mission of sonic healing continues with Zusammenkunft, a deeply esoteric trip on the legendary Music for Dreams that sees him expanding in all directions and applying a potent form of restorative alchemy across eleven cuts of zoned out house, jungle exotica, balearic folk, and cosmic synthesis.
Aussteiger - Zusammenkunft (Music for Dreams, 2018)
The title track begins with echoing hand drums and rimshots over a dubwise four-four. Psychoactive drones build underneath until chugging Italo basslines drop alongside a pronounced disco pulse, while outerspace lasers fire rainbow light into the sky. Soft pads float like bubbles, their string, brass, and flute tones joined by swirling washes of static and vocal loops repeating “swimming” to intoxicating effect. And after a beatless section swathed in neon hued dreamtime arpeggios, the rhythms return, now joined by 16th note hats and aching strings. “Aguaha” sees stoned house rhythmics accompanied by island percussion and idiophones looping under distant layers of reverb. The throbbing sub bass is joined by sexual scatting, all breathy incoherent cooing alongside galactic synthesizer blasts and celebratory group chanting buried deep within the background jungle. Eventually things take a dark turn, with towering pads pitch shifting like an auditory mirage over the esoteric rhythm flow and psychedelic sequences intertwining with hypnotic chanting…as if an ecstatic trance state has been realized in the form of futuristic deep house. Closing out the A-side is “Ara”, sitting at some compelling intersection of Sun City Girls psych folk, soaked in Americana and mystical solar vibes, and the kind of dusty jazzy organic house coming out of the Money $ex crew. Indeed, shambolic acoustic guitar loops and electric guitar harmonics sit above a pillowy kick, with minimal snare, bongo, and shaker accents accompanied by strange airy compression fx and exotic vocal samples wafting in and out.
“Francis Boogie” is the song of the summer for me, featuring a laid back balearic shuffle with fluttering ocean pads, mesmeric vocal samples, and spellbinding guitar loops that fade in through cloudy layers of low pass filtering. The whole thing is a masterclass is confident arrangement and mixing, as there is little else present but the beat, the acoustic and electric guitar riffs, and a nice unobtrusive bassline, yet somehow it all comes together for one of 2018’s most captivating moments…the kind of wonderful music that bathes the world in golden light and positivity, washing away negative energy with sunshine smile vibrations. Next is “Hoggar,” seeing understated beats and ritualistic rainforest drums floating in isolation with silky smooth e-piano romantics and jangling tambourines. At times things progress towards the cinematic, like riding atop a majestic steed towards a blood red sunset, anticipation building as cosmic arps lock in with the tribal percussion webs and dramatic snare fills. But rather than explode, Aussteiger chooses to simmer, letting the dreamy midnight Rhodes work and blissed out drumming wash over the mind. Then comes “Bejaia,” built around an irresistible wobbling synth riff, snaking funk bass, and rhythmics sitting somewhere between disco, b-boy breaks, and classic house. There’s a percussive midsection with a panorama of atonal metallic sounds bouncing off of steady hand drums until the hallucinogenic synth modulations build everything back towards bouncing outerspace euphoria…heads down, eyes closed, bodies writhing in the heat of the night.
Further string instrument explorations occur in “Egyrpth”, with what is perhaps a banjo weaving heart-aching spells alongside soaring pads, all over a massive bass drum march intercut with rattling kick tones and crunchy claps. These epic and filmic sections are surrounded by colder expanses dominated by searing arcs of ring modulation, while glassy arps spin fantasy melodies in the background ether. The centerpiece of Zusammenkunft comes next with “Power,” as jacking kick and synthbass patterns are woven into a compelling rhythm storm along with hand percussion, snaps, and claps dancing all around. A sinister arp builds alongside hissing hi-hats and cosmic-aquatic pings, giving things a hint of Detroit techno futurism until backwards swelling cymbals lead to a sharp drop out, with nothing left but lonely synthesizers locked into otherworldly music box melodies. Eventually the technoid sequencing returns, bringing with it a stomping house march, while the childlike melodies continue to drift overhead, pushing the vibe towards feverish delirium. Side closer “Atura” is dominated by this incredible sonic effect…a sort of squelching static tone that moves like some intelligent liquid, boiling and churning in hues of ebony and mauve, bubbles popping and releasing prismatic sonic streaks. The melodies evoke a snake charmer dance for cyborgs, accompanied as usual by one of Aussteiger’s head nodding deep house grooves. And at some point, pitched down vocal samples lock in with bongos and congas, adding a leaned out hip hop swagger.
We head further into the heart of darkness with “Jk” and its stuttering off kilter flow. The drum loops are mind bending in their refusal to lock into a familiar pattern and the vibe is only made more freaked out by militant chugging bass synths. A semblance of a groove takes shape as shakers ease tension, allowing vocal synth fx as beamed in from another dimension to percolate alongside swirling compressed pads. It’s an unrelenting stomp through a robotic jungle…sounds morphing as if filtered through DMT…shakers bouncing all around…liquids dripping upwards as mutant frogs sing together. The album ends with the flute mysticisms and synthesized visions of “Karma.” Ethnological explorations sit above housey exotica, with huge sub bass cushions and flashes of sound approximating the crawling of insects. It’s like awakening into a ritual both frightening and familiar, deep in the bowels of some cosmic temple at the center of a faraway star, with third eye aerophone meditations, sitar tones subsuming the mind, and synthetic cellos tuned to the cosmic microwave background emanating from unseen sources.
(images from my personal copy)
