his edition of ‘La Barca’ sees the full realisation of Thomas Köner’s concept that charts his travels between 2008 and 2009. For the first time, the 22-track, 2-hour long digital release features not only all of the tracks from the original 2009 CD and the five bonus tracks from the 2010 double vinyl, but a further five unreleased tracks that complete the epic ambient cycle.
While in many parts so ambient as to be barely present, Köner’s ‘La Barca’ captures and creates some beautifully evocative sonic scenes, with snippets of dialogue, traffic, birdsong and sounds altogether more difficult to attribute to a specific source, all hovering and humming in the air. Mournful brass shapes the experience of ‘Brisbane, Forest’, while beeps and distant voices drift through ‘Montenegro (Hour 11)’. Torrential rain in Hamburg and a conglomeration of stricken voices in Paris, not to mention the dark drone and shrieks in Montenegro, and the uncomfortable noise of ‘Vasabron, Stockholm’ (who knows what was happening there?) are all integral to the ‘sonic cartography’ Köner conjures from the air.
|
Unexpectedly engaging, it’s a truly magnificent work in its field.
|
