Tournesol
Moonfunk

After the ambient-techno of "Kokotsu," the Danish group Tournesol unleash one of the most interesting and underrated albums of the electronic '90s: Moonfunk (1995), released on the glorious R&S label. The apocalyptic and distressed atmospheres of its predecessor are almost nonexistent, and those endless drones that once dominated now play an almost exclusively "background" role. The intent is to dare and experiment; the result is a gentle and deep sound, spatial and subdued; unreal soundscapes akin to Oval dominate an atonal scenario characterized by an admirable stylistic collage (ambient, rap, techno, jazz, trip hop, and breakbeat, to name a few influences).

The organic and monophonic ambient is still present, however: "Inside Angel" and "Baljerne" revisit the oppressive and claustrophobic atmospheres of their beginnings; over the cosmic textures of "Scapeland" and the glitch futurism of "Mapping Your Mind", syncopated beats and floating sounds in a sea of delay stimulate a mental trip. The change of direction occurs with the unexpected Chicago house sounds of "Chords of Rhythm" and the muffled sound of "Junglemovie" and "2095". These latter episodes follow the guidelines just laid out by the Future Sound of London in the near-contemporary "Lifeforms," namely dreamy pads and liquid-reverberated rhythms that outline the space and (non)form of Tournesol's music. The two Danes remain among the few currently able to approach the unattainable sound of FSOL, without "cloning" but proposing something similar albeit in a more simplified, less abstract, and more extrasensory key compared to the futuristic and visionary sound of the Londoners; an example is the acidic and neurotic dub of "Sunny Blow".

Further developments of Tournesol's exploration can be glimpsed in the rapped trip hop of "Volt'Age" and "Interplanetary Zonecheck" (an idea that would later be picked up with more success by Archive in Londinium), and secondly in the astral breakbeat of "Electrowaltz" and the jungle-like "Break'n' Space", tracks that, however, leverage the typical ambient approach of the duo, using solutions that are unusual for the standards of these genres. The most interesting experiment is definitely "Clockworking Clockwork Clock", a kind of avant-garde electronic jazz that I'm sure would have pleased Miles Davis in his more experimental moments.

An album whose insights will prove successful in the years to come, it's just a pity that the duo didn't continue down this path, instead plunging into future jazz through the mediocre project "The Society." If you're into the warp-like stuff of the last decade, then it's a work worth reconsidering.