Bernd Kistenmacher – Beyond the deep

3 reviews for Bernd Kistenmacher – Beyond the deep

1. 

   Can Atilla – 2022-11-22

   Talent from God”. Wonderful album again. Romantic

2. 

   Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness – 2022-11-22

   Beyond the Deep is a worldwide call on behalf of Bernd Kistenmacher so that the man stops ignoring this vast world under our feet and respecting it, because if the nature should take revenge, it would come probably from there. Dramatic? Disturbing? Hmm Yes, quite as the musical structures of Beyond the Deep, 17th opus of German synthesizer who goes of superb orchestral surges to renew our forgotten passion for Vangelis works.

   Moreover it is what jumps to ears on Ouvertures opening; big aquatic waves which roll beneath the skiff of a hydraulic galleon and gulls cackles that are dying in the singing of abyssal depths. A strange sea and world contrast where synth strikes remind dramatic approaches of the Spanish conquering galleys that eyed New World coasts. Deeply moving, the synth is magnificent and spits symphonic breaths which bend on percussions, such these old sailboats leaning on the strength of slaves rowers pushed by drums striking. The resemblance is stunning, but superbly musicale with a so sensitive dexterity that we imagine ourselves on these shuttles of the despair, escaping to scurvy and arrows of those future converts. The world and the sea! Two indestructible links that Kistenmacher displays and fills out with all the complexity of its electronic equipments, shaping thus a work as unique as the message carrier. A splendid refrain escapes from this stream strength, giving a second breath to Ouverture which becomes suddenly as harmonious as he could be dramatic. A synth which frees its melodious bits among rolling percussions such a conquering procession through seas. Seas to fine twinkling arpeggios which float around a splendid Mellotron aura, showing all the sensitivity of a Kistenmacher which weaves its orchestral arrangements with so much knowledge and panache as Vangelis or John Williams.
   Shouts of terns above a rough sea, Tsunamis intro rumbles with power and worry pouring under the dark side of waves and voices of sirens trapped in strange plasma to suspended chords. A soft Mellotron appears from it, flirting with a piano to chords as much hesitant as nostalgic and soaking in a halieutic romance. There where the melody gets lost in the infinity, in the gust of notes which float around a suave Mellotron, while embracing a chaotic structure which takes its surge with a heavy piano galloping on a choppy sea. A crazy race where the rhythm can’t be explain, but lives with doggedness by notes of a wild piano which dance feverishly in the mists of a heavy Mellotron, as the shaping of an immense wave of Tsunami which will crash with roar. The music of Kistenmacher lives and tells magnificently well on this oceanic ode where the progress of the sound structures binds itself with the imagination of its author.
   After the storm, it is the calm with melodious Clayoquot Sound where acoustic guitar and fluty Mellotron sing the serenity on a structure very near the roots of the progressive folk music. In progression, Kistenmacher adds to it beautiful strata of a very symphonic synth which wraps arpeggios to twinkling radiance and this wonderful melancholic Mellotron.
   Lost City is another superb title where the duality of rhythms and harmonies is in constant ebullience on very beautiful orchestral arrangements. The intro flows as a river of Vietnamese cantons with a Mellotron to Pan Flute which espouses arpeggios weaved in the silk. A soft harmonious trickle which flows in a hybrid cosmos where planet Earth is catching up to the stars. At around the 3rd minute chords wriggle beneath strikes of jerky Mellotron string bows and drum rolls, reflecting Geoff Downes‘ complex orchestral universes. Lost City will constantly be torn pulled between the melodious sweetness and dramatic approaches dense orchestrations, under a discreet synth among of which spasmodic chords and symphonic strata invade little by little this universe where the rhythm gets win with bows strikes and anarchic percussions before sinking into the quietude of a which meets up its introduction. A great track that worth Beyond the Deep purchase.
   A little as his title indicates it In the Black Smokers Bar offers a jazzy structure. A structure of night club with a beautiful and languishing line of bass and a synth to aphrodisiac breaths that is out of tune from Beyond the Deeps ambiance and which recalls Jarre cosmic rumbas on his first works.
   Who will Save the World? takes again the Mellotron orchestrations with tender violins which tear a soft intimate atmosphere where a beautiful flute floats in a hazy mystic. Magnetic, singing exercises to weakened tremolos go with this symphonic walk that adds to its nobility with harpsichord notes which furrow a cosmic synth. Another great music piece, with a not less beautiful refrain, that hooks the ear with its beautiful orchestrations.

   Beyond the Deep is a wonderful musical jewel. Far from create conventional EM, Bernd Kistenmacher rather chose a very symphonic approach with its last opus, relegating the sequential movements, the cosmic approaches and ethereal ambiances in background, putting all its emotions in a great classical-electronic work worthy of the best Vangelis attempts. And there I would establish a link with 1492 and Alexander that I still am far from the final product. No! Kistenmacher goes further in the exploration of its equipment by redrawing their potentials with creativity that equals the one of great composers. I know that I will shock many eyes, and ears, but Kistenmacher indeed exceeded its mentor (Klaus Schulze) by signing his last works of a musical audacity that even Vangelis refused to penetrate.
   A very beautiful work! Very beautiful music which has nothing to do with EM such as Berlin School so much accustomed us.

   2010. Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness

3. 

   Robbert Schuller / iO Pages magazine – 2022-11-22

   Vrij snel na Kistenmacher‘s rentree in de elektronische muziekscene komt hij al met een opvolger van het uitstekende Celestial Movements (2009). Ditmaal geen excursies in de ruimte, maar duiken we onder het wateroppervlak van de diepste oceanen. Duistere terreinen waarvan wij als aardbewoners amper weten wat er allemaal leeft en gebeurt. In het boekje roept Bernd op uiterst voorzichtig te zijn met het milieu in de wereldzeen.
   Beyond The Deep is een tamelijk donkere plaat geworden waarin Kistenmacher experimenteert aan de grenzen van zijn vertrouwde Berliner Schule-sound.

   Overture start met waterige bubbelgeluiden voordat een kalm marsritme instart. De track heeft een zekere grandeur en qua melodie lijkt het of Vangelis over de schouder meekijkt. Met een titel als Tsunami verwacht je overrompelende sequencergolven van Kistenmacher. Niets van dat al; kalme piano-partijen paden de weg voordat halverwege eindelijk de ritmes binnenschuiven. Het wordt echter nergens te gek. De twee relatief korte melodieuze nummers van rond de zes minuten op het album hebben niet al te veel zeggingskracht. Lost City is het scharnierpunt van de CD waarin Kistenmacher vrijelijk tracht met iets verrassends te komen. Het begin is Oosters getint, welhaast in Kitaro-stijl. Later duikelen de sequencers over elkaar, maar blijft er iets van stuurloosheid achter in de track.
   Het afsluitende Who Will Save The World? haalt nog de nodige symfonische klanken uit de kast, maar als geheel is Beyond The Deep toch veel minder van kwaliteit dan Celestial Movements.

   2010. Robbert Schuller / iO Pages magazine