Mythos – Modern electronic kamasutra

2 reviews for Mythos – Modern electronic kamasutra

1. 

   Archie Patterson – 2022-11-22

   This album is some kind of milestone, a modern electronic interpretation of the Kamasutra, both the music, and the artistic content is fully realized. Musically it is the best electronic music Stephan Kaske has made in a decade or more. A state of the art production and incredibly exotic sonically, it plays like a virtual whirling dervish of tone colors, rich sonic seasonings, and powerful rhythmic pulsations. Enchanting listening!
   As for the content”

2. 

   Morpheus – 2022-11-22

   Global fusion electronica with a rich sonic palette and powerful rhythms. The Modern Electronic Karma Sutra brings together a variety of colorful global vocalization and instrumentation and a wide range of vibrant synthesizer sound. The electronic aspects are doubtless the foundation of the music – dramatic themes led by exotic melodic tones, underneath liquid arpeggios bubble and squelch softened by the broad spreading textures of smooth swells and light floating washes. Indeed Kaske‘s employment of current sound synthesis is masterful and absorbing in itself. Embellishing the main structures are a wealth of international performances and samples – Indian female vocals, Pygmy calls, tribal chants, Chinese er-hu, finger cymbals along with some soulful brass and wordless singing. Beats on the album are frequently a fusion of deft programming and global percussion loops – tablas and other hand drums along with twinkling metallics and bells.
   The mood is one of theatrical vibrancy – strident beats drive romantic compositions with lush layers of synthetic-organic tone where different world flavors gracefully appear and perform almost like characters in a dream pageant. The sound is one of many interwoven layers and of deeply saturated color that calls to mind the colored lights and bold make-up of the stage. Many passages have an oriental feel – not simply because of the use of Eastern samples, but the synthetic voices and the musical modes chosen work together to evoke the atmosphere and mythos of distant Asia.
   The CD comes in a two panel glossy digipak with a 32 page booklet. The imagery throughout the package is primarily taken from original Indian source material – a series of hand drawn illustrations. The front cover presents an embracing couple framed in double decorative borders with the simple title ‘The Modern Electronic Karmasutra’. The reverse contains the only musical information – a track list with full times, all composing, performing and programming credited to Stephan Kaske, contact details are here also. Within all remaining space is given over to pictures and information from the source material.

   This is not the latest album from the Mythos / Stephan Kaske catalogue – originally released in 2002 it was followed by The Dramatic and Fantastic Stories of Edger Allen Poe in 2004 and Mysteria – An Electronic Journey Into Sound in 2006.
   The music, however, is still fresh and clearly contemporary. For those that don’t know Mythos began back in 1969 with multi-instrumentalist Stephan Kaske, drummer Thomas Hildebrand and bassist Harald Weie.
   Kaske went solo around 1980 with the album Quasar and worked extensively producing other artists and writing for TV, radio, film and commercials.
   This album will appeal to fans of European synthesizer music that enjoy traditional international elements fused with cutting edge technology.

   2007. Morpheus