Fennesz
Black Sea

Christian Fennesz is a forty-something Austrian. Ok. There must be thousands of them. However, he is also a musician who works with computer and guitar. Alright, there may not be hordes of those, but he wouldn't be the only one. He's been doing it for twenty years now. Fine, the field has narrowed. But probably only and exclusively from Fennesz could we (not) expect a work like this "Black Sea," an extraordinary gem released in November 2008 by the industrious Touch Records.

After his glitch beginnings (recently reissued by Mego) and the two precious "Endless Summer" (a sort of non-concept full of warm, summer, and "surf" atmospheres) and "Venice" (a more experimental album conceptually conceived around the city of Venice), the latter with a collaboration with David Sylvian, "Black Sea" is for Fennesz the first non-concept album. An album that arises purely from itself, an album built, in short, without a dominant conduction - which, however, in the result, proves to be coherent and monolithic like and more than previous works. There is an underlying tonality that perpetually resides in the sounds, never so well-crafted, of "Black Sea," and it truly is a dark sea: cold shades, but at the same time able to be warm and full of life, sensitive and emotional. In short, the aforementioned conduction doesn't dominate, but more intuition and emotion.

The opener, as well as the title track, is already a classic: a rough glitch assault (it feels like immersing in icy water) makes room for barely whispered melodies and powerful drones that seem made of pure noise, which end up softening into waves balancing between noise and melody. The dynamics are rich in contrasts between their apparent staticity (the slow times, the lack of rhythm, the echoes and reverberations) and their deeper kinetic quality (the chameleonic and changing melodies, the sharp sounds) and create a sound experience that has a synesthetic quality, such is its power.

Continuing with the listening, the sounds color and shape themselves, they seem to have real volume and extension, you could touch them while they touch your heart (especially in the unparalleled, incredible "Glide"), and this is what takes "Black Sea" a step forward and a notch above the previous works of the good Viennese: if Fennesz's attention and sensitivity as a creator of sounds, as well as his mastery in making melody and noise coexist, had already been appreciated, it is finally with Black Sea that this entire sound universe, which our artist has shown capable of unleashing, reaches a true state of the art. In this perspective, the two previous works can be seen as important (and for this reason perhaps even more beautiful) movements towards this new chapter, which, obviously and fortunately, does not constitute in any way a point of arrival. The desire to dare, to try to push even further, to find new solutions and create, above all, great music, it's clear that Fennesz doesn't lack any of this.

In the meantime, let us enjoy these fifty-two minutes, this dimensionless sonic immersion. And let's hope that (the desire) for him (Fennesz) never fails.